A Personal Blog
"Pardon My French"
I have an odd habit. Whenever I swear (and by swear I mean “ass” and “hell”, very rarely anything truly vulgar), I say “pardon my french” right afterwards.
*I* know it’s not french. The people I’m talking to know it’s not french.
Maybe I hope by tossing in an oddism, folk forget that I just swore. But the odd thing is that I didn’t really swear in the first place.
I have no idea where I picked this up. It’s like a hook a character in some crappy comedy movie has. He does it over and over again, nobody laughs, but it makes him feel like everything is right in the world.
Truly odd.
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| Print article | This entry was posted by Jeremy Wright on December 8, 2005 at 11:59 am, and is filed under From My Life, General. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed. |
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about 6 years ago
:) And i thought that this phrase is used only in russian language. We swearing much “tougher” and some also use this phrase as an elegat, ironic and funny excuse.. :)
about 6 years ago
Cold: That’s funny… I haven’t spoken Russian in almost 10 years, and I’m fairly sure I picked it up well after that (and I’m not sure I ever picked up that slang in Russian anyways)… Very funny!
about 6 years ago
I seem to have developed a bad habit of saying “howdy” – both as an online and a face-to-face greeting.
That might be okay if I was from Texas or somewhere similar – but as an Aussie, it’s a very bad habit and one I’ve got to stop myself doing.
Funnily enough, I do also say “g’day” … although I tend to use the more NZ version “gudday”.
Chatting on skype with b5 Jon recently, I greeted him “howdy”, to which he reponded “You sound like a real Calgarian when you say that. We’ll have to make you an honorary cowboy :)” … now THAT is a problem !!
Time to put a stop to this habit right now!
about 6 years ago
I’m an Aussie and I’ve used that phrase since God knows when – now I know that when I use that in some posts readers are not saying: what the ….? eh, almost had to pardon my french there :-)
Anyone knows if it’s common in use in Amercia – seeing 85% of my readership are Americans
about 6 years ago
As per Martin, its a common phrase in use here, and I don’t always say it if I swear but I do say it if I accidently swear in polite company, like when I’m on a b5media conference call :-)
about 6 years ago
I picked up “howdy” in the UK. I started doing “pardon my French” within the last year or so (when I started doing conference speaking).
I still have no idea where it came from. But, I’m glad to know I’m not the only one who does it. Maybe it’s not as odd as it sounds in my head (after it comes out) ;)
about 6 years ago
@Sim’: And what, exactly, is the problem with sounding like a Calgarian? Can’t us colonials all just get along?
:)
about 6 years ago
Merde! So do I. Pardon my French.
about 6 years ago
Gawd I love the internet…from Google Answers:
http://answers.google.com/answers/main?cmd=threadview&id=232360
If you read classic Russian literature you’ll notice that they speak
in French when they want to use any sort of coarser language. This was
of course limited to the Russian aristocracy who were more educated
and had the ability to become bilingual. The idea was that they didn’t
want to sully the mother tongue with cuss words and such, and so they
spoke in French on these occasions. I can’t say for sure, but I’d
assume that this fiction mirrored reality in the use of this language.
Quite literal example of needing to say “pardon my French!”
about 6 years ago
I am always a bit concious of using that phrase around French Canadian’s as it may offend them more than the actually swearing did…
C’est la vie
about 6 years ago
My dad says “Pardon my French” after he farts.
about 6 years ago
When everyone started changing “French” to “Freedom” such as “Freedom Fries” etc, I started saying “Pardon my Freedom” when I say something slightly offensive. Just a little twist on things. hehe!
about 6 years ago
really funy =) Thanks, i laughted a lot.
about 6 years ago
As said by other Aussies, its a common expression here.
I personally tend to say “Pardon my Anglo Saxon”. Rarely fails to get a smile. And its truth in advertising.