--- title: Soft words for hard things: rudeness and swearing — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Soft words for hard things: rudeness and swearing», a lesson of the euphemisms course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: When people stub a toe or drop a plate, a swear word wants to jump out. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/38-drat-and-the-f-word/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Euphemisms](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/) / Soft words for hard things: rudeness a… # Soft words for hard things: rudeness and swearing Lesson 38 of the euphemisms course of Mova's primary school: 22 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/euphemisms/38-drat-and-the-f-word/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/38-drat-and-the-f-word/0/) — When people stub a toe or drop a plate, a swear word wants to jump out. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/38-drat-and-the-f-word/1/) — Polite people catch it halfway and turn it into a harmless word that starts with the same sound. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/38-drat-and-the-f-word/3/) — Words like "freaking", "flipping" and "effing" work the same way for the strongest swear word, the f-word, so the speaker sounds cross but not filthy. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/38-drat-and-the-f-word/4/) — Some soft words just name the bad word without saying it: "the s-word", "the f-word". - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/38-drat-and-the-f-word/5/) — Others, like "blimey" and "strewth", were once oaths about God that have worn soft with time. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/38-drat-and-the-f-word/6/) — The softer word keeps the feeling (anger, surprise, pain) but drops the shock. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/38-drat-and-the-f-word/10/) — "Heck" is a mild word used instead of "hell", as in "What the heck?" - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/38-drat-and-the-f-word/11/) — "Blimey!" is a British cry of surprise that comes from the old oath "God blind me". - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/38-drat-and-the-f-word/12/) — "Strewth!" is an Australian cry of surprise that comes from "God's truth". - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/38-drat-and-the-f-word/13/) — "Holy cow!" is an American cry of surprise used instead of a ruder oath. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/38-drat-and-the-f-word/14/) — "Holy moly!" is a jokey cry of surprise used instead of a ruder oath. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/38-drat-and-the-f-word/15/) — "Son of a gun" is an American soft form of a much ruder insult; it can show annoyance or even friendly surprise. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/38-drat-and-the-f-word/16/) — "Shoot!" is an American mild word used instead of the s-word, a rude word for poo. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/38-drat-and-the-f-word/18/) — "The s-word" is a polite way to name a rude swear word for poo without saying it. - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/38-drat-and-the-f-word/19/) — "Fudge!" is a mild word used instead of the f-word. - [20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/38-drat-and-the-f-word/20/) — "Frick" is American slang used instead of the f-word. - [21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/38-drat-and-the-f-word/21/) — "Freaking" is a slangy stand-in for the f-word used as "very" or to show anger, as in "freaking cold". - [22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/38-drat-and-the-f-word/22/) — "Frigging" is a slangy stand-in for the f-word, used to show anger. - [23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/38-drat-and-the-f-word/23/) — "Flipping" is a British mild stand-in for "bloody" or the f-word, as in "flipping freezing". - [24](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/38-drat-and-the-f-word/24/) — "Effing" is British slang that says only the first sound of the f-word swear. - [25](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/38-drat-and-the-f-word/25/) — "Eff off" is a rude British way to tell someone to go away, softened from the f-word. - [26](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/38-drat-and-the-f-word/26/) — "The f-word" is a polite way to name the strongest common English swear word without saying it. - ← previous: [Soft words for hard things: stupidity and madness and rudeness and swearing](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/37-bats-and-gosh/) - next →: [Soft words for hard things: rudeness and swearing](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/39-pardon-my-french/) - ↑ back to [Euphemisms](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/)