pardon my French

English

WOTD – 21 February 2023

Etymology

From the use of French to mean “vulgar language”, ostensibly because the words used are not in English.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌpɑːdn̩ maɪ ˈfɹɛnt͡ʃ/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌpɑɹd(ə)n maɪ ˈfɹɛnt͡ʃ/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛntʃ
• Hyphenation: par‧don my French

Verb

pardon my French (third-person singular simple present pardons my French, present participle pardoning my French, simple past and past participle pardoned my French)

1. (intransitive, idiomatic, often humorous) To excuse the speaker's frankness of expression or profanity.

   Synonyms: excuse my français, excuse my French, forgive my French, pardon mon français, pardon my français, pardonnez mon français, pardonnez my French

   That computer is a worthless piece of shit, if you’ll pardon my French.

   • 1960, Diana Holman-Hunt, chapter 6, in My Grandmothers and I, London: Hamish Hamilton, published 1988, →ISBN, page 162:

     'Have you been in England long?' / 'A damned sight too long—if you'll pardon my French,' she answered.

   • 1986 June 11, John Hughes, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, spoken by Ferris Bueller (Matthew Broderick):

     Pardon my French, but Cameron is so tight that if you stuck a lump of coal up his ass, in two weeks you'd have a diamond.

   • 2018 July 16, “Check”, in The Vault, performed by Kash Doll [pseudonym; Arkeisha Antoinette Knight]:

     Look, now it's the dolly, not Parton / But pardon my French / Give no fucks about no nigga / Give no fucks about no bitch

Descendants

• → French: pardonnez mon français (calque)

Translations

to excuse the speaker’s frankness of expression or profanity

Arabic: لَا تُؤَاخِذْنِي (lā tuʔāḵiḏnī), أَسْتَمِيحُكَ عُذْرًا (ʔastamīḥuka ʕuḏran), اُعْذُرْنِي (uʕḏurnī) Danish: undskyld mit franske, undskyld sproget Finnish: anteeksi kielenkäyttöni French: passez-moi l’expression German: auf Deutsch gesagt (also common but less apologetic); auf gut Deutsch (de) (literally “in good German”); entschuldigen Sie meine Ausdrucksweise; mit Verlaub (de); verzeihen Sie den Ausdruck; wenn Sie den Ausdruck erlauben; wenn ich offen sprechen darf Greek: συγγνώμη για τα γαλλικά μου! (syngnómi gia ta galliká mou!) Hungarian: bocsásson meg a világ (usually sarcastic), ha szabad így kifejeznem magam, ha szabad így mondanom, már bocsánat, már elnézést Italian: scusate il francesismo, con rispetto parlando, mi si passi l'espressione (formal) Japanese: 下品な言い方で恐縮だけど… (gehin na iikata de kyōshuku da kedo …) Macedonian: изви́нете за мо́ето изразу́вање (izvínete za móeto izrazúvanje), изви́нете за и́зразот (izvínete za ízrazot) Norwegian: unnskyld språket mitt Polish: za przeproszeniem (pl) Portuguese: com o perdão da palavra (literally “with the apology of the word”), desculpa o palavreado Romanian: scuză-mi limbajul, scuzați-mi limbajul Russian: извини́те за мо́й францу́зский (izviníte za mój francúzskij), извини́те за выраже́ние (izviníte za vyražénije) Sicilian: scusannu a palora, scusannu u francisìsimu Spanish: perdona mis garabatos, perdona mi francés Swedish: ursäkta språket Ukrainian: вибачте за мою французьку (vybačte za moju francuzʹku)

See also

• not to put too fine a point on it
• Thesaurus:swear

Further reading

• pardon my French on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “pardon my French, pardon (also excuse) my French.” under “French, adj. and n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, December 2022.
• “pardon my French, phrase”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.