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What is the capital of Tunisia?

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What is the capital of Tunisia?

Are Francophones in general adopting this English swearword?

We usually use a lot of traduction of “fucking” and “fuck”, but using these two words in english language is not common, even among the teenagers.

You can’t have a very relevant answer as it depends of people around us and our social class.
(just to situate my answer, I’m a 24yo man of middle class hanging out with 16yo to 28yo people)

I haven’t seen the film, maybe someone who has will confirm what you heard but I wouldn’t be surprised you heard correctly.

When I started working in a French secondary school in the seventies fuck was one of the common graffiti on tables, chairs and walls, etc. It was not so much used in speech. Sometimes it stood on its own, sometimes followed by someone’s name. But I would not say it was “adopted” into the French language. Those who used it knew it was an English word. Even though the eleven year olds did not necessarily know what it meant as they arrived in the first year, they were quite conscious that they were transgressing language barriers when using it. It was used even by some who would not have dared say swear words in French, but in that matter barriers are crossed more easily in a foreign language.
Of course by the end of the school year they all knew what it meant.

There’s no reason to believe that particular school was an exception, it was quite an ordinary middle class school. By the time I retired, although the old graffiti had remained, “carved in stone” in the old furniture, it was not used as much, so it could be a generation thing.

Using the forms fucker or fucking would not be heard among teenagers, but I can very well imagine those kids from the 70s and 80s being able to decline the word in conversation as bobo adults, after seven years of learning English and watching English series and US programs.

It will be interesting to see what Québécois stackexchangers have to say about English swearwords in Québécois French.

When I was in a host family in Nantes, I was surprised when I learned the word for baby seal from my host mother (bébé phoque). She didn’t appear to register the phonetic similarity to the swear word when teaching me the word, though I definitely asked for clarification.

My host brother mentioned that French soldiers didn’t always make a good impression on American troops in WWII when saying “I’d better be going” (Il faut que j’y aille), since it sounded similar to “F**k GI (General Infantry)”. Youths and young adults were usually aware of the “F Bomb” and its use when I was there around 2000, but it wasn’t the “first tool in the swearing toolbox” for them.

However, the word “phoque” isn’t very often in conversation, and there aren’t that many Allied General Infantry troops in France any more, so the meaning of the word is typically very clear by the context of the statement. It’s not a very hard word to learn.

I did not answer because the question was specifically asking about France, but I’ll complement Laure’s answer (I’m Québécois).

From my observation, when we use that word is more in its fuck form than its fucking form. We tend to have a lot of swear words to chose from (in french, mostly church/religion related words, and others often borrowed from France), and generally when we chose fuck, it is generally because we really mean it, it tends to be a strong word. The verb form is a bit less strong IMHO and much less used, as we have the ability to ‘conjugate’ our swears, or transform them into adverbs and nouns.

I’m telling this as an adult. Now, how do teenagers use this? As Laure mentioned in her answer, TV/movies are ‘good’ teachers for this kind of stuff so there’s no way to not be exposed, but as kids grow, they learn to swear (well, those that keep on going to school, as we have an expression Sacrer comme un gars de chantier which implies that some jobs were there is not a lot of education is required tend to have a “dirtier” vocabulary).

I must admit that the use of fuck is sometime viewed as a ‘casual’ swear. Which means that a teenager using this word while waiting in line at the convenient store will not get big frowns from other in Québec, as opposed to what he’ll get saying the same thing in Ontario.

I can’t remember the movie, but in that movie, something bad happened (it does not matter what), and the woman said fuck in the original English version. In the french translation, the word was translated by fuck.

So, yes, we use fuck and fucking, no matter the education/age, but it is not generally our favourite way to swear.


Edit:

I forgot to mention: We tend to use the word shit once in a while. And also crap. Both of these are weaker than what you’re asking, however. And we also tend to use them less than french swear words.

Well, as someone from Québec, Canada, I can say that we use some of English swear words like “fuck” or “fucking”, but these are mostly light swears. They really do not have the same connotation as in English. “shit” and “crap” are also used, but they do not really have a bad meaning. It’s really casual.

When we are really frustrated, we tend to use swears that are religion related words. They come from legacy vocabulary since religion is not as strong as it was before. I will not make a list of these here, but Quebec persons are well known for them! You can probably find a list easily somewhere else if you are interested!

From time to time, I hear fuck as a synonym of va te faire foutre, which is mostly a literal translation.

As far as I know, the usage of fuck in english is closer to the french usage of putain (this is the choosen translation in the Four Weddings and a Funeral movie).

I’m French. I haven’t seen the movie but I would translate:
“the twins are fucking bitches!”
by:
“les jumelles sont des putains de salopes”
using “putain” not as its original meaning of “whore” but as a translation of “fucking” such as, for instance “ce putain de con” that could be translated into English as” this fucking asshole”

 

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What is the capital of Tunisia?