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Ok, so recently in my French class my teacher yelled "putain!" out loud but later on continued the lesson as nothing happened. I got confused for a second. I think I was the only one to actually realize that our teacher cursed in class, because our class consists of all beginners in French, so I'm not sure all of them know the French swearwords.

When I got back home, I chatted with my French friend about that and he said it surely had to be a funny situation. "You know, putain, nowadays, is getting less vulgar than it has ever been" my friend said.

But... What? Why? Last I checked, a month ago or so, I read that it was a clear swearword and one of the strongest.

So how is it? Is it a swearword? A "lesser swearword"? Or maybe not a swearword anymore?

Martin
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  • This question has already been answered here. Please do say if you need it to be translated. – None Jan 03 '17 at 18:49
  • I'm a French beginner, so yes, I would need a translation. – Martin Jan 03 '17 at 18:53
  • Swearing is very different in depending on cultures, in France you can swear on TV for example, it won't shock anyone. – Teleporting Goat Jan 03 '17 at 19:09
  • Wrote an English version of the post. A question to you: where did you read it was one of the strong swearword ? Your French friend is probably more reliable. – None Jan 03 '17 at 19:34
  • @Laure Pourquoi cette question est marquée "exact duplicate" alors que sur la plupart des autres SE on trouve "possible duplicate" ? Je suis pas d'accord sur le fait que ce soit exactement la même question que l'autre, qui parlais surtout des autres mots, et la partie sur putain est assez différente. – Teleporting Goat Jan 03 '17 at 23:09
  • To me it is a swearword, i wouldn't use it in front of everyone, I wouldn't use it during a job interview if I drop my pen. Plus it is still used as a synonym of "pute" which is clearly a swearword. And even if nowadays you can use "enculé", "bâtard", "fils de pute" in the same way as "putain" ("ah merde enculé j'ai fait tombé mon stylo"), it doesn't make them less vulgar. – Destal Jan 04 '17 at 09:50

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