Stories Collected While Living in France

French la Vie

Out of the Mouth of Babes

                      Hand_on_mouth_corey_amaro_1

Years ago my brother Mark told me this story about his daughter, "Gina was four year old she was playing by my side while I was tinkering in my workshop. At one point I accidentally dropped something on my finger. I bit my tongue trying not to spill out the familiar swear words in front of my daughter. Instead I moaned and groaned, blabbering nonsense. My daughter trying to be helpful tugged at my sleeve and offered, "Daddy I think the word you are looking for is Damn-it. Say, "Damn-it," Daddy, and you'll feel better." My brother really groaned after that.

While working on the apartment, I have learned a few choice French expressions from the workers. The other day Regis cut his knee, he didn't need any coaxing to gush out some of those choice expressions. Later he apologized for what he blurted out. I waved my hand at him, "Oh Regis, I would have dropped a heavier bomb than the words you used." 

Luckily none of them speak English. 

Why is it that foreign swear words, or words of little importance are instantly memorized? As I child I learned "Dry Fart" in Portuguese. Why? Too bad I never learned, "Thank you"?! 

Do you utter slang words, or are your a purist like Yann?

 

Photo: My niece covering her mouth.

Comments

30 responses to “Out of the Mouth of Babes”

  1. Sue in Japan

    I know the Portuguese word for “thank you” (obrigado) because I learned that (supposedly) that’s where the Japanese got their word for it – arigato. Apparently they never said words of thanks until the Portuguese brought the priests over in the 1600’s.
    My kids and I always say that Japanese doesn’t have nearly as many curse words as English – of course we have never spent several weeks hanging out with guys doing construction. 😉

    Reply
  2. Robin

    I know I am spelling this wrong but my Dad used to say Mutra bregada for thank you. If my Dad asked if you wanted a second helping of food and you declined he would say “mushvica” which means “good, more for me!” I only ever heard them speaking Portuguese, I never saw the words written so pardon the phonetic spelling. JeanPaul is Canadien French and he uses a swear word string that relates to a church tabernacle! Most of his swear words translate into really funny expressions.

    Reply
  3. Carol L

    I think children learn curse words first because they usually have the most emphasis put on them when said and it catches their attention. And yes, I have been known to utter many curse words. It relieves stress !

    Reply
  4. Lynne

    SLANG WORDS . . . which “the grands” have repeated. Truth be told!

    Reply
  5. Jill Flory

    I say ‘oh crap’ but don’t love it when my kids say it! I grew up in a household that did NOT say anything remotely resembling a swear word. so I guess you could label me a purist!

    Reply
  6. Marilyn

    I guess I would be a semi-purist. Most of the time I don’t say swear words, but there is a rare one that will jump out and surprise me. My husband says more than I think he should so sometimes I repeat so he hears how it sounds. It does surprise him.

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  7. Debra

    I try hard as he_l not to . . . oops, guess I’m not very successful:)

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  8. g

    well I am no purist-slang and curse words have been known to escape-my mom used to say it sounds so unlady like and as I have gotten older- I kinda agree-so I really do try to watch

    Reply
  9. kipper

    A purist, unlike most of my family and friends. Strongest words I use are merde or dang. As a joke I say “baby deer” if Mom is helping me with something and it isn’t working out. She taught me that the English word for a baby deer is pronounced the same as a naughty word in Norwegian.

    Reply
  10. Tracy

    “Oh shit” are two of the truest words every uttered, and I utter them frequently.

    Reply
  11. Rhonda

    I once purse dialed my sister in Chicago. I had no idea she heard me cussing out a rude driver, while driving on the freeway. Later, she called me and repeated what she heard and said, Oh Rhonda, you have got to ask for forgiveness. Which I immediately did. Oops. Note to self: turn off phone while driving.

    Reply
  12. Diogenes

    My use of swear words is usually confined to joke telling or story telling, and never aimed at anyone.

    Reply
  13. Rebecca from the pacific northwest

    Intrigued by “dry fart”. Is there also a term for “wet fart”?
    There’s something so satisfying to me about a long string of creative juicy invectives to relieve stress sometimes. I try to save it for just the right moment (which includes being alone or only with Husband who is unshockable) although I do let a few smallish words fly from time to time. My act is cleaned up significantly from my 20s when I swore like a sailor.

    Reply
  14. Ann

    Many years ago I read that using bad words is a result of our inability to express ourselves. Also, in the corp world bad language is never acceptable. But there are times when I need to vent so I use words to replace slang like …..oh Ann, Ann, Ann..; “bummer” ; “fooie”(is that a word?). But humor is the best way to go or another way is to use phrases from movies “Are you talking to me?” “I could have been a contender, I could have been somebody”, “I can’t think about that now, I’ll think about it tomorrow” etc.
    Gosh darn Corey, when are we going to see your magic in the apt?

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  15. Kathie B

    If it really hurts, I’m beyond words (who’da thunk it?), and just moan or scream, depending on the degree of pain.

    Reply
  16. annie vanderven

    Swearing in English? easy peasy..Swearing in French totally incapable of doing it..I think because in English it means absolutely nothing to me..
    Annie v.

    Reply
  17. Tracy

    When hurt, it’s usually moaning and groaning. When mad or needing to express myself, I swear up, down and sideways and wouldn’t think of apologizing for it. They are just words. Life is short and I live it fully!

    Reply
  18. Laurie SF

    Me- “Get the hell out! He did not!”
    Friend- “Oh, yes he did.”
    I have the terrible habit of using the ‘H’ word wihen listening to good, girl-talk, tidbit fun.

    Reply
  19. Kit

    We have a similar family story of my father trying to hammer a nail into a wall and hitting his thumb, while my brother was watching. As he valiantly restrained his language, my brother came out with “Is that a bloody nail, Daddy?”
    I made heroic efforts to stop using swear words when my kids were small and mostly succeeded by replacing them with less offensive words that had the same first letter… but every so often under stress one would slip out… I mean ‘Oh bugger’ is so much more satisfying to say than ‘oh bother’!
    I notice my teenage son now says ‘Oh flip’ a lot – guess that’s the same principle!

    Reply
  20. Julia Thelen

    I usually swear in French. The words seem to carry more weight while not seeming to be as crass as in English.

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  21. RebeccaNYC

    I am a classy lady with the vocabulary of a salty sailor. I own it, and don’t think my regular vocabulary suffers because of it, and I don’t think I need to ask forgiveness for it. I DON’t use this language in front of children, though. They’ll learn soon enough. (And at the Met this season I am in an modern opera where I get to sing my favorite swear word over and over again……! )

    Reply
  22. Brenda, Walker, LA

    I’m simply just not telling, lol….

    Reply
  23. heyjude195430@msn.com

    Once when I was handling claims, an irate customer was complaining about the way his claim was being handled and in the body of the conversation he said “the f—king adjuster, excuse my French.” I said, “Actually, it’s not French, it’s Norwegian. the Norwegian sailors used to use the term.” My customer just stared at me. He completely forgot what he was complaining about.

    Reply
  24. La Contessa

    OMG COREY!My ITALIAN Husband never swears either……….I have a BAD MOUTH!Thats another thing for the list!

    Reply
  25. Kiki

    Just a quickie: This made me really, really howl with laughter – and I’m the same – I normally never swear (really bad!) but when I started living in England I also started to use words which made my new friends wince with embarassement for their ‘crude’ friend – one had the word blood in it…. When I was approached that this was really NOT the way to speak, I pondered the remark and did agree – only to me it didn’t sound bad or foul because it was in another language!!!
    Same thing now with French explicites; I had to watch my tongue and eat soap a few times – now I say ‘mince’ (swelt) instead of mxxxe… and hoppla, it feels no longer like a ‘juron’! This little eposide is PRICELESS – thank you so much!

    Reply
  26. Janet with Eiffel

    When I was about four years old my Grandfather
    would swear a lot, Grandmother was always
    scolding him for it.
    Grandpa loved Grandma’s home made mince pie.
    One day I was visiting the grandchild of the
    neighbor across the street from my Grandparents.
    That same neighbor had (quite some time previous)
    borrowed my Grandma’s meat grinder.
    When I arrived at neighbor’s house she inquired
    “how are your Grandma and Grandpa?”
    I told her that Grandpa said he would be
    very happy to have a mince pie
    “”If she would just return the GODDAMN meat grinder””
    As my Grandma always said………..
    “little ears have big mouths”

    Reply
  27. Peggy Braswell

    Out of the mouths of babes + that is so funny! I have to be careful around the kids but my favorite word is Shit..
    sometimes it just slips out. Ha I am not a purist. xxpeggybraswelldesign.com

    Reply
  28. Kiki

    oh, I just found a piece of paper on which I have written my latest wonderful ‘not swear’ word I picked up on the DVD’s ‘Call the Midwife’ – BOTHERATION…. one of the girls (who were all terribly well behaved most of the time) said that word in exasperation and I loved it so much that I had to write it down – and just now found it amongst my papers!

    Reply
  29. Kiki

    même chose ici! except I ‘swear’ (v. mildly) in any other language than my Swiss German…

    Reply
  30. Llyane @ FrenchOnSkype

    Wonderful pictures, thank you so much for the story!
    Llyane

    Reply

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