Pardon my French

[Tiger67]

What do the French say when they swear?

[sddsddean]

Quite often 'Merde' which I think freely translates as  'Sh!t'.

[Solarjunkie]

We had a French student staying with us years ago who used the wonderfully expressive (but never to us translated!) scronnaynieu to put it as phonetically as possible. We never dared ask what it meant, but it is still in use in this family as an expression of surprise or anger.

[SteveD]

Have a look here:

 

http://www.insults.net/html/swear/french.html

 

NOTE: Contains strong language!  Now there's a surprise!

[simms]

French people seem to use strong or 'offensive' language more widely than say English speakers do: little old ladies will often say 'merde' at slight provocation - or maybe I just hung out with a rough crowd of little old frenchladies.....try a book (forgotten the title) by 'Genevieve' which teaches comprehensively the art of cussing and insults in French

[harrylover]

do you mean what words do they use when they swear, or what they say after they swear, as some british people say: "pardon my french?"

[Harrowarrow]

Nobody has mentioned the really offensive expressions such as :--

"nom d'un nom"literally name of a name] mild expletive,

"tonnere de Brest" [thunder in/near Brest in Brittany] extraordinarily mild expletive