--- 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: Newspapers, teachers and polite grown-ups often have to report swearing without repeating it. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/39-pardon-my-french/) [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 39 of the euphemisms course of Mova's primary school: 26 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/39-pardon-my-french/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/39-pardon-my-french/0/) — Newspapers, teachers and polite grown-ups often have to report swearing without repeating it. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/39-pardon-my-french/1/) — So they use cover words: "strong language", "colourful language", "some choice words", "expletive deleted". - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/39-pardon-my-french/2/) — When you read "the coach used colourful language", nobody painted anything: the coach swore. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/39-pardon-my-french/3/) — The word "colourful" makes the swearing sound almost cheerful. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/39-pardon-my-french/4/) — People also apologise for their own swearing with a joke: "Pardon my French!" pretends the rude word was a foreign one. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/39-pardon-my-french/5/) — And there are the softened swear words themselves: "ruddy", "bloomin'" and "flaming" for "bloody", "feck" in Ireland for the f-word, and "fiddlesticks" or "bother" from grannies who never swear at all. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/39-pardon-my-french/6/) — "An f-bomb" means one use of the f-word, the strongest common swear word; it is American slang, as in "he dropped an f-bomb". - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/39-pardon-my-french/7/) — "Feck" is an Irish word, milder than the f-word, used in anger or as a joke. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/39-pardon-my-french/8/) — "Fiddlesticks!" is an old-fashioned mild word for annoyance instead of a real swear. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/39-pardon-my-french/9/) — "Bother!" is an old-fashioned British mild word for annoyance, used instead of "damn". - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/39-pardon-my-french/10/) — "Shucks!" is an old-fashioned American mild word for disappointment or shyness, used instead of a rude word. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/39-pardon-my-french/11/) — "Bloomin'" is a British mild stand-in for the swear word "bloody", as in "bloomin' rain". - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/39-pardon-my-french/12/) — "Ruddy" is an old-fashioned British stand-in for "bloody". - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/39-pardon-my-french/13/) — "Flaming" is a British stand-in for "bloody", as in "the flaming bus is late"; nothing is on fire. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/39-pardon-my-french/14/) — "Bleeping" stands for any swear word, as if the word had been covered by a beep on TV. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/39-pardon-my-french/15/) — "Expletive deleted" means a swear word was said here and has been left out of the written record. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/39-pardon-my-french/16/) — "A four-letter word" means a swear word, because many English swear words have four letters. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/39-pardon-my-french/17/) — "Pardon my French" means "excuse my swearing"; the rude word was English, not French. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/39-pardon-my-french/18/) — "Excuse my language" is a polite way of saying "sorry for swearing". - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/39-pardon-my-french/19/) — "Colourful language" means swearing; it is a British polite phrase. - [20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/39-pardon-my-french/20/) — "Strong language" means swearing; TV and film warnings use it. - [21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/39-pardon-my-french/21/) — "Turned the air blue" means swore a lot; it is a British joke. - [22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/39-pardon-my-french/22/) — "Effing and blinding" means swearing a lot; it is British slang. - [23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/39-pardon-my-french/23/) — "Some choice words" means swear words or insults, as in "she had some choice words for the referee". - [24](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/39-pardon-my-french/24/) — "Told someone where to go" means told someone very rudely to go away. - [25](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/39-pardon-my-french/25/) — "Naff off!" is a British slang way to say "go away", softer than the f-word version. - ← previous: [Soft words for hard things: rudeness and swearing](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/38-drat-and-the-f-word/) - next →: [Soft words for hard things: rudeness and swearing](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/40-with-all-due-respect/) - ↑ back to [Euphemisms](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/)