y do people say pardon my french when they swear?

Answer 1

i think it's more of a euphemism. french is usually associated with class. people say "pardon my french" to make the obscenity seem *less* vulgar or offensive.

so don't be offended, g. :)

Answer 2

This phrase is simply another of the many American and English
expressions that equate anything French with sex and obscenity. French postcards, French novels and French kissing connote the risque.
"Pardon my French" started circulating on both sides of the Atlantic around 1916, and almost certainly stems from the World War I escapades of American and British soldiers.

Answer 3

The French people have always been associated with things dirty and vulgar, always having had an obsession with sex.

Read on:

As far back as the early 16th century, French pox and the French
disease were synonyms for genital herpes, and French-sick was another term for syphillis. The OED [Oxford English Dictionary] also equates the adjective French with "spiciness", as in French letter for "condom", French kiss (1923) and French (i.e. "sexually explicit")novels (from 1749).

Somewhere along the way the term "pardon my french" was coined and first appeared in a magazine and was associated with "dirty words" ....one more notch on the French smut belt and thus it's association with the French.

Answer 4

Maybe its because many US people still don't like the French because of past problems, so if they heard french its as good as swearing. (somethings just go too far though...calling french fries "freedom" fries, common)

Ever notice though, most things sound nicer in French? You could be calling someone something really rude, and it almost sounds poetic lol.

Just my thoughts though

Answer 5

the french have taken the rap from english and americans for a long time,we blame french for oral sex,fries,the beret i think it is because they eat snails and frogs and act like a bunch of philosophical perverts.all the english and americans go live in france to be libertine.so i guess cuss-words kind of sound like french to some potato farmer from the mid-west.

Answer 6

Maybe they think most swear words are French, or they don't know the word "Swear".

Answer 7

because to swear is known as "using language"...meaning bad/swear words.everyone knows french is a language,and for english speakers,it's different than the norm,as is swearing.

Answer 8

that pisses me off more then anything.. I am french and swearing or burping in no way means you are speaking french.... its just means those who say that are rude ignorant and rude....

Answer 9

of route no longer. Parisian is so finished of *colourful metaphores* that if a polite verbal change were translated it can make the DI in finished metallic Jacket appear like omit Manners.

Answer 10

Maybe they are blasting the french, I am not sure either