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Ladies and gentlemen, this is how not to swear in English.
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Guys, this is such an important lesson to learn. Now I know that you know all the English
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swear words anyway. I know that you know them, don't pretend like you don't. They are the
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first words that we learn, aren't they? I mean, the swear words are the first words
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that we learn in any language. How do I know that because the first French words I learned
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were swear words. The first Spanish words I learned were swear words. The first Cantonese
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words I learned were swear words. And it is quite enjoyable to swear in another language,
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you know, I admit that. But in certain contexts, it's completely not ok. So at work for example,
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really not appropriate to swear in English at work. Around children, it's another place
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where I think it's really not ok to swear and to be honest in a lot of situations. Unless
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I'm with people that I feel very comfortable with or I'm at football, I'm very careful
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not to swear. So we need to be aware of our context, about where we are and who we are
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with, if we are going to swear. We as Eat Sleep Dreamers, I think we should be able
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to express ourselves without using swear words. We don't need to use them. There are so many
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other ways to express how we feel without using swear words. And actually we're going
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to get really creative today. We're going to find some words that are actually way more
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fun to use than swear words. You can start to bring in Shakespeare, Roald Dahl, film
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quotes. We're going to be looking at all of those today and we're going to find out ways,
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creative ways to not swear. Alright? So if you are up for it, this is going to be a fun
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lesson, ok?
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Alright, let's start off with a classic one. This word. Now a euphemism we use to describe
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this word is the f-bomb. So you could say 'I try not to use the f-bomb' and that means
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I try not to use that word, ok? So already there's a nice word, a euphemism we can use
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to avoid saying that word. So the f-bomb. Quite an informal phrase here is 'He dropped
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the f-bomb'. to drop the f-bomb is kind of like, he said that word, the f-word. That's
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another way we could describe it is the f-word, ok? So it's the f-word or the f-bomb. Now
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an alternative you could use, I mean you could say 'for crying out loud!'. That's quite a
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good one 'oh for crying out loud!' You could say 'Blast!' A slightly old fashioned one
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is 'Fiddlesticks!' A bit old fashioned, it's quite sweet so you know you could use that
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one 'oh fiddlesticks!' And again it starts with F so it kind of helps you to express
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what you feel but without saying the full F-word, you can say 'Oh fiddlesticks!'.
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We also use the f-word with up to suggest that we made a mistake 'oh I effed-up'. In
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fact 'to eff up' is quite a nice way to avoid using the f-word 'Oh I effed up'. So I made
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a mistake. You could also say I screwed up. That's quite good or I messed up. "I totally
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messed up.' Same thing. So you can avoid saying the f-word quite nicely. I effed up, I screwed
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up, I messed up. With the -ing it's sed as an adverb as well to intensify our feelings
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about something. So alternatives might be like flipping. 'It's flipping cold, isn't
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it?' Or 'It's fricking cold' or 'freaking cold'. So you could say 'It's flipping cold,
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isn't it?' or 'It's fricking cold'. Freaking maybe is slightly more American, possibly.
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'Oh it's freaking cold, isn't it?' So all three you could use as an intensifier to intensify
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how you feel about something. Again you could say 'That meal was flipping good.' So you
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are avoiding saying the f-word but you are intensifying how you feel about something.
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A nice alternative to the f-word with -ing is bleep. Now in films when there is a swear
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word, certainly on tv, they used to bleep out the word. It's a sound. It's essentially
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this. 'What the...' So that's to bleep out a word. So we use that as a word now. So for
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example I might say 'I lost my bleeping phone' and that is expressing the f-word with the
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-ing but we don't need to use it. We are being creative with the language we are using bleep
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which is associated with swear words with foul language but we are using it in a creative
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sense. The other classic word is this one. We call these four letter words. If you said
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'he uses too many four letter words.' Four letter word kind of means, either that one
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or the other one. So yeah again it's like a euphemism to talk about a swear word. So
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for this four letter word, alternatives, the classic one would be 'Sugar!' Again it has
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that S sound so it feels like you are about to say it but you avoid saying the word. So
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you say 'oh sugar!' You could say 'oh shoot!' as well 'shoot'. So sugar, shoot. A really
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soft one 'bother!' Again maybe slightly, a bit old fashioned maybe. A sort of classically
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British one, slightly old fashioned again would be 'Gordon Bennett!' Now I don't know
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who Gordon Bennett is or was. I don't know why we say his name but you'll hear it. Maybe
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it's a kind of British thing, maybe it's a London thing as well 'Oh Gordon Bennett.'
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You can use Gordon Bennett if you are surprised or you're annoyed. Yeah maybe it's one that
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you might hear a native speaker say but you don't necessarily need to use that one. In
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London we probably be use 'Blimey!' or 'Cor Blimey!' for example to show like surprise
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or annoyance. Blimey, Crikey as well 'Crikey!' Again particularly with surprise or some kind
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of exasperation 'Crikey!' Those very British ones Gordon Bennett, Blimey, Crikey good ways
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to show that you are annoyed about something. Not necessarily swear words as such but if
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you want to show that you are annoyed those are pretty good.
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With this phrase we could avoid saying this by actually using the word S.O.B. 'What an
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S.O.B.' Now we know from S.O.B. that it means that phrase so there is a connection and so
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again I would be careful with things that have any connection to a swear word about
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using that at work or around children or things lie that. I'd be very careful. But it's safer
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than saying the full phrase. So 'what an S.O.B.' Alternatives could be 'Son of a gun!' that's
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quite a classic one 'son of a gun!' 'Son of a mother trucker!' That's a good one. I've
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heard recently 'son of a bachelor' as well. I guess you could be quite creative with this
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you could kind of go 'son of a...' whatever you want. I've also heard 'son of a motherless
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goat' I mean, yeah, alright it's a nice alternative. The thing is again I would be a bit careful
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about using that anywhere formal, it's quite obvious what it actually means. It's quite
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aggressive so yeah, but it's an alternative. My favourite, instead of saying this phrase
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you could say 'shut the front door!' That's brilliant, I love that one. We understand
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what it means but you avoid the rude words. So that's often used in surprise. So if someone
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had said something surprising to you, you could say 'shut the front door!' Similar to
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S.O.B. is BS. Now BS stands for that. Kind of like nonsense essentially. 'Oh that's nonsense'
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And you can say 'that's BS' "You are talking BS' It means you are talking nonsense. Again
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people understand what BS stands for so use it wisely in the context you are in.
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Instead of using this phrase you could say 'what the heck!' So maybe somebody has done
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something stupid and you say 'what the heck!' 'What the heck are you doing!' Or you could
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say 'what the eff are you doing!' Again you are avoiding the full word but there is obviously
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with eff, there is association so you are linking it to the full word. So 'what the
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heck' is probably a safer word to use here but what the eff has he done now'. Now there
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are hundreds of words to describe someone as an idiot. If you want to describe someone
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as an idiot there is a variety of words. Some extraordinarily rude but there are some alternatives,
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some creative alternatives that we can use. So yeah, like 'you're an idiot!' That's a
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classic one 'what an idiot!' 'What a plonker!' In British English plonker is quite a common
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one, it's quite a classic one. 'Oh what a plonker!' it juts means an idiot. I've heard
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a lot more recently like a douche. In American English it's come over here 'oh what a douche!'
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So I would say that's probably not too rude. In addition you could say 'What a twit!' That's
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quite a soft one, I would say 'what a twit!' But do you know what, I think if you are going
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to insult somebody, if you are going to call them an idiot you should be creative with
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this word. This is your chance to shine, to show that you have humour as part of your
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language. Because I think that's a huge part of language is being funny with it, being
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playful with it. So I'm going to look to two Britain's greatest writers for inspiration.
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Let's start with Shakespeare. How would Shakespeare insult someone?
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Roald Dahl invented so many words that we can use some of them and they are so fun and playful. We could use one of
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those to insult somebody.
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And how about films? Why don't we look to films and tv to find
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fantastic ways or creative ways to insult someone. Because if you are going to insult
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someone do it in a fun creative way. So one of my favourite films is Elf played by
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Will Ferrel. Played by Will Ferrel. Now Will Ferrel in Elf uses some amazing language and
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one of my favourites is.
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I mean, is that not the best insult you've ever heard without
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actually being rude? If you do one thing this week please use that phrase. It's too funny.
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This is a really fun phrase.If somebody uses a lot of swear words in their language or
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in their vocabulary we say they have a potty mouth. So for example you might say 'My brother
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has a real potty mouth' and that tells me that he says a lot of swear words. You could
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also say a foul mouth to have a foul mouth. 'He has a foul mouth' he says a lot of rude
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words. Now I don't know about where you guys are but I remember in a previous place that
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I used to work we had a swear jar. This was a jar and every time that somebody swore in
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the office you have to put a pound in to the swear jar. And it was a really good way of
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stopping people from swearing because as soon as you did it, you would be like 'oh no, what
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did I do!' Ok, a pound in the swear jar and you know if you had a potty mouth or a foul
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mouth you'd lose a lot of money in the week. So this is a really good way to stop people
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from swearing and to get them to use more creative ways to express themselves.
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I suggest you try that. If you work in an office where there is too much swearing. I
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suggest you introduce a swear jar. If you want to avoid swearing in your writing then
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we can use all the different symbols that are used in punctuation to replace key letters
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in the word. So I've been using it through out this video and we will look at some other
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examples of how you can avoid actually writing the swear word itself but you can suggest
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what it is. Obviously this is extremely informal and I wouldn't be using this in any kind of
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serious writing but I wouldn't be swearing in any serious writing. In a business document
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or whatever, clearly so this is again for when you are talking to your friends or whoever
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but you don't want to swear this is a nice alternative.
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Eat Sleep Dreamers, how was that? Did you enjoy that lesson? How NOT to swear in English.
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If you enjoyed it, please give it a big like, big thumbs up and if you know anyone who would
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enjoy that video then please share it with them. Share it with someone that's learning
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English or your English class or your English teacher. Please share this video with them,
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that would be amazing, thank you so much. Remember guys I've got new videos every Tuesday
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and every Friday teaching you fresh modern British English so that you can take your
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English to the next level. That's why I'm here, ok? Thank you so much for hanging out
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with me today. Until next time this is Tom, the chief Dreamer, saying shut the front door!