# How often do you use profane or vulgar speech? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 8, 2010, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-you-use-profane-or-vulgar-speech/559951 "2010-11-08T20:03:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Rebo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rebo/32/13005_2.png) [@Rebo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rebo)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-you-use-profane-or-vulgar-speech/559951/21 "2010-11-08T21:03:49Z")
I cuss a lot, but I have been attempting to curb it around my co-workers. They think I’m a goddamn lady or something… ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-you-use-profane-or-vulgar-speech/559951/22 "2010-11-08T21:04:33Z")
> [@filling\_pages](#): > > Maybe you should try a little motherfuckin’ harder. Maybe I fucking will. What I’m talking about here is people who use it so much that it’s like how other people use “um.” It’s almost like a glue that strings the words together, or a substitute for words that don’t come readily. When my sister-in-law and niece were in town recently, SIL swore like a sailor when she was driving. Niece and I were a little shocked. But both of them giggled like schoolgirls when they asked me how to pronouce Suffolk. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-you-use-profane-or-vulgar-speech/559951/23 "2010-11-08T21:10:28Z")
I don’t swear on the job or in front of kids. That’s about 98% of the time, since I’ve got a 3 year old. I try to make up for it in the other 2% of the time. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-you-use-profane-or-vulgar-speech/559951/24 "2010-11-08T21:20:46Z")
I would estimate that I haven’t gone a day without uttering the word, “fuck” at least once, since I was probably 12 years old. Sometimes I think to myself, “tomorrow, I’m going to refrain from f-bombs all day.” Then I wake up in the morning, stretch, look at the clock and say out loud, “Fuck, time for work … DOH!” ---
**Author:** ![Drain\_Bead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e47774/32.png) [@Drain\_Bead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drain_Bead)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-you-use-profane-or-vulgar-speech/559951/25 "2010-11-08T21:22:50Z")
I’m definitely more toward the sailor side of things. I knew I was working at the right place, when my first day I was walking down a hallway and heard one of the attorneys (I was a law clerk at the time) very loudly telling a story in which she somehow managed to use the word “fuck” as pretty much every possible part of speech in approximately three sentences. ---
**Author:** ![minor7flat5](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minor7flat5/32/258_2.png) [@minor7flat5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minor7flat5)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-you-use-profane-or-vulgar-speech/559951/26 "2010-11-08T21:23:27Z")
> [@tumbleddown](#): > > I swear frequently, but I do not blaspheme. Therefore g-ddamn and its variants are off my plate. Same here. I can easily be sent into a storm of blue language by buttheaded actions on the part of other drivers, but those words do not include the blasphemy words. I hadn’t thought of it this way while reading the poll. ---
**Author:** ![StGermain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stgermain/32/2868_2.png) [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-you-use-profane-or-vulgar-speech/559951/27 "2010-11-08T21:28:12Z")
I don’t swear. Or cuss. Or use profanity. My mother washed my mouth out with soap when I was little and it stuck. It just isn’t me. Plus, to me, using vulgar speech seems to show a lack of self-control. I’m big into self-control. StG ---
**Author:** ![Apollyon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/apollyon/32/4238_2.png) [@Apollyon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apollyon)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-you-use-profane-or-vulgar-speech/559951/28 "2010-11-08T21:51:52Z")
I make no special effort (poll choice), but tend not to swear in general speech. When I do however, it tends to be like buses – none for ages and then a whole string of them arrive together. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleeps_With_Butterflies)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-you-use-profane-or-vulgar-speech/559951/29 "2010-11-08T21:52:46Z")
I save my profane and vulgar talk for online. Offline I rarely do ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-you-use-profane-or-vulgar-speech/559951/30 "2010-11-08T22:11:36Z")
All the fucking time. Except at work, because I’m a fucking professional, dammit. ---
**Author:** ![Carol\_the\_Impaler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Carol\_the\_Impaler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carol_the_Impaler)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-you-use-profane-or-vulgar-speech/559951/31 "2010-11-08T22:24:43Z")
Profanity is the last bastion of illiterate motherfuckers. (The best bathroom stall graffiti I’ve ever seen.) (I swear like a fucking sailor. But not around the children. One time I said “hell” in front of my nephew. He was so scandalized that he reported it to his mom. Who snorted and laughed to herself. And immediately told all my sisters what he said. “Mom, aunt **niblet** used a bad word!!” Much guffawing ensued.) ---
**Author:** ![Not\_a\_Platypus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/d26b3c/32.png) [@Not\_a\_Platypus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Not_a_Platypus)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-you-use-profane-or-vulgar-speech/559951/32 "2010-11-08T22:40:21Z")
I keep my speech clean at work and around my/my SO’s family, but I wouldn’t say I make a special effort. I was brought up learning there’s a time and place for everything, so it’s more like a set of switches that will flip automatically depending on the situation. ---
**Author:** ![stretch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a6a055/32.png) [@stretch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stretch)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-you-use-profane-or-vulgar-speech/559951/33 "2010-11-08T22:47:34Z")
I swear way more IRL than I do online, which is weird because none of y’all are in a position to deck me, whereas a dude I tell to fuck off on the freeway may well be armed. I swear around the 6 year old grandson, too, as I did around my daughters when they were kids. The grandson has his own swear word; when we were fence building he asked if he could say “Dang it.” Most home improvement projects result in swearing, so I could not deny him. Dang is his swear when needed. And he knows not to say it at school. ---
**Author:** ![joyfool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@joyfool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joyfool)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-you-use-profane-or-vulgar-speech/559951/34 "2010-11-08T22:48:00Z")
I used to cuss like a sailor, but now that I re-found my faith, I never do. It hasn’t been that difficult either. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-you-use-profane-or-vulgar-speech/559951/35 "2010-11-08T23:25:12Z")
Poll didn’t really have a spot for me. I went for option #3 as though it said “I try to limit my cussing, but I frequently fail.” I am happy to cuss for emphasis or comic effect. I would like to reduce instances of this in the office, somewhat. (For _damned_ sure I wish that I were able to bite my tongue in time before I declared our Controller to be a “cunt,” that one time. That’s just ugly.) My cursing is generally more along the lines of “Stan! How the blistering blue fuck are _you?_” My wife and I are both trying to watch our language around our daughter, now that she’s basically an ambulant dictaphone. ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-you-use-profane-or-vulgar-speech/559951/36 "2010-11-08T23:39:29Z")
> [@Rebo](#): > > I cuss a lot, but I have been attempting to curb it around my co-workers. They think I’m a goddamn lady or something… - 1. (Why they have this delusion about me, I have no fucking clue.) ---
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2010, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-you-use-profane-or-vulgar-speech/559951/37 "2010-11-09T00:04:53Z")
I attempt to curse artfully for comedic effect. But they do tend to fall out of my mouth when I’m extremely pissed off, as well. I don’t use swears as a substitute for actual discourse, but I do think of them as colorful additions to anyone’s speech. I think that trying to stop other people from swearing is extremely dickish, most of the time. However, I do have a problem when people swear at work. It’s not generally something that needs to be addressed since this is a professional cubicle farm environment, but there is a coworker who sits right across the aisle from me who occasionally cusses too loudly for my comfort. We work on phones, and I don’t want to risk my callers overhearing her. ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2010, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-you-use-profane-or-vulgar-speech/559951/38 "2010-11-09T00:13:43Z")
“I make no special effort not to cuss, but it’s not an every-other-sentence thing.” That being said, I curse a _lot_ more IRL than I do online. ---
**Author:** ![SeaDragonTattoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@SeaDragonTattoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeaDragonTattoo)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2010, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-you-use-profane-or-vulgar-speech/559951/39 "2010-11-09T01:44:50Z")
I have recently started trying to say “fuck” less. I have replaced it with “fark” and find it amusing. ---
**Author:** ![Scarlett67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scarlett67/32/7387_2.png) [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2010, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-you-use-profane-or-vulgar-speech/559951/40 "2010-11-09T02:13:57Z")
I didn’t know crackers could have big nigger cocks. Learn something new every day. I try to match language to the situation and company, but seeing as how much of the time I’m home alone or with Mr. S, who has the same approach to cussin’, it’s usually a free-for-all. Perhaps the most vulgar phrase I’ve ever seen was a quote from _Ulysses_ by James Joyce: **God fuck old Bennett!** Don’t often that verb used with that subject. :dubious: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-you-use-profane-or-vulgar-speech/559951.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-you-use-profane-or-vulgar-speech/559951.md?page=3)