Ask a foreigner

[notsurewheretoturn]

Its an old saying which isn't heard much anymore. 'French' was used to mean swearing, so if a curse word was spoken, the user would say 'pardon my French' as an apology.

 

[Teasel]

@notsurewheretoturn where are you from? No worries if you don't wanna say.

 

[Lost in the Woods]

In the time of Sir Joseph Whitworth and standardize threads, etc, was the big debate, adopting the metric system was called “going French”.

 

[notsurewheretoturn]

@notsurewheretoturn where are you from? No worries if you don't wanna say.England.

I'm from England.

 

[Teasel]

Lol @notsurewheretoturn me too, Heya

 

[Teasel]

In the time of Sir Joseph Whitworth and standardize threads, etc, was the big debate, adopting the metric system was called “going French”.

Cool, never knew, was this amongst the English?
Just googled him, he came from the same place as my mum.

 

[Lost in the Woods]

Whitworth was one of the greats.

 

[Teasel]

Thought I recognised the name Armstrong Whitworth, it was a subsidiary of Hawker Siddeley that my Dad worked for.

 

[Rose White]

@Teasel we say excuse me in French if we are trying to be silly or over dramatic , a La Miss Piggy style

ETA: now I understand you were asking about the phrase “excuse my French” yes notsurewheretoturn said it well!

 

[Teasel]

excuse me in French if we are trying to be silly or over dramatic , a La Miss Piggy style

Love how she says it, shortly before becoming very angry lol

 

[Rose White]

@Teasel yes! laughing out loud about how she gets offended so easily—thanks for the image

 

[Rose White]

Oh the R Rabbit hole goes deep! This video clears up why British drop R’s and throw them in (har har)

Intrusive R’s are pretty funny to Americans. We’re like, can’t you read?

I wonder if Brits, aussies, welsh, NZ get less speech therapy for R’s because they drop them anyway.