Not so Offensive Alternatives to Bad Words in English (Video Lesson)

Are you scared of using swear words?

Unfortunately, most learners (and a lot of natives) don’t acquire the tools to use swear words in an appropriate manner. Instead, the general tendency is to either (A) completely ignore them (which is to miss this important part of the language), or (B) abuse them and use them in inappropriate situations.

If you haven’t learned about English swear words, I recommend you give this article a look, but if you’re already familiar with the colorful aspects of bad words in English, today you’re going to learn how to use unoffensive alternatives to communicate.

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Full Transcript

Hey guys, what’s up?

I’m Justin, welcome to another episode of RealLIfe TV. Today, I’m going to teach you about alternative ways to swear in English, so stay tuned.

@#&! (Written Alternative)

Ok, so, the first way that we actually use it, to write, is this symbol here. This symbol represents, when we say the words *bleep*, there’s a bleep. That’s bleep.

Fuck and WTF: the F word, fudge, frick, flippin’

So, then, we have the word fuck, which is also called the F word. So, the way we use this, if you get upset, and you have to yell “fuck!” you might say fudge, you might say frick, and, if you use this as an adverb, for example “I’m fucking tired,” you might say, like, “I’m frickin’ tired,” “I’m freakin’ tired,” “I’m effin’ tired,” “I’m flippin’ tired.”

And then, the final way that we use this is when we say, you might say, WTF, which you see on the internet all the time, that’s “what the fuck,” you might say “what the bleep.”

Learn More With Another RealLife Article (by Trevor): How to Use the Word FUCK

Shit: shoot, shiznit (crap, crud)

The next swear word that we are going to teach an alternative for is the word shit. So, you don’t have to say shit, you can say shoot, you can say shiznit, these are way less offensive.

*Note: I forgot to mention the words Crap and Crud as valid alternatives

Learn More With Another RealLife Article (by CHAD):  How to Really use the word SHIT 

Hell: heck

The next word is hell. We use the word heck, instead of hell. So, for example, instead of saying, like, hell yeah, you can say heck yeah. And, instead of saying “what the hell,” you can say “what the heck.”

Ass: arse, butt, bum

The next word is ass. Ass is a little bit offensive, but you don’t have to use it. You can say arse, you can say butt, you can say bum.

Learn More With Another RealLife Article (by Justin):  34 Ways to Use the Word ASS

Damn: darn, dang, doggon

The next curse word that we often use is damn. Damn! Like, that’s damn good. You can actually say darn. You can say dang, you can say doggon.

Bitch: biatch, son of a gun

The next word is bitch. So, you can use a couple of alternatives to bitch. First of all, it’s more of a gangster term, coined by Dr. Dre. This is not something you want to use in a normal situation, because, it’s something you want to play with, actually, but, biatch. Next one, you might say “son of a bitch,” is the bad word, but you can say “son of a gun,” that’s not offensive at all.

Learn More With Another RealLife Article (by Justin): Bitch Please! How to Really Use the Word Bitch

Religious Swearing-God, Jesus and Holy Shit: gosh, goodness, jeez, etc

Ok, now moving on to the religious swear words. So, God is actually not very good to use as a swear word. You don’t want to use this as, like, an exclamation. So, you might say gosh. Gosh, instead of God. My gosh! Or my goodness.

And then, sometimes people say, like, Jesus, when they’re really frustrated about something, or they’re amazed by something, but you can say jeez/geez.

And then, the final one, some people say holy shit. So, holy is obviously something that’s very, like, religious, very sacred. So, you can say holy cow.

So, that does it for today, alternatives to swear words. Remember, be careful using these, play around with them, pay attention in the media, I really, really recommend caution with these, because it’s still much more complicated than just using these words.

But I hope you enjoyed the lesson today. If you want to get more videos like this one, please subscribe to our YouTube channel, or you could subscribe to our mailing list, where you get a free copy of 101 Words You Won’t Learn at School.

Take care!

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