Me (14y male from Poland) got my english teacher annoyed/disappointed after saying the word “crap”. I’m unsure if this is the right place to ask this question but is saying that word considered bad? I always thought it was pretty mild and not a big deal.
It’s not a bad word, but it’s not a good word either, is it?
It’s always easier to replace a habit than it is to stamp it out, so I try to teach my kid age-appropriate cusses. He’s five, so I encourage him to lean on Adventure Time-style creative un-curses, as:
“Finn, this is dirtballs.”
“Aw figs.”
“This is totally dumptrucks.”
“What the lump?”
And the usual stuff like ‘fiddlesticks’ and ‘dagnabbit’ are reliable.
Crap is already an un-curse though lol.
Edit: I’m a lost American who can’t read the community name apparently, sorry mates, enjoy your afternoon.
You could argue that.
Instead of splitting hairs about what’s a curse and what isn’t, I tend to go by whatever is most cute to hear from a kid.
In the UK it’s considered a slightly less vulgar version of shit.
Maybe an English teacher in England knows better than someone that has English as a second language or an American.
In the US, it is also considered a slightly less vulgar version of shit.
Extremely less vulgar, what are y’all on lmao.
No, not really… there are very few environments where it would not be appropriate to say “shit”, but “crap” would be acceptable. Try it out:
You are at a job interview and you say, “Excuse me, where is the bathroom? I need to take a crap.”
You are expressing your condolences about the passing of a friend to their family, and you say, “I have some of their crap I think you might want to keep in their memory.”
A politician is giving a speech, and wants to emphasize that they’re a man of the people. They emphasize that they “don’t take crap from anyone.”
Pretty cherry picked examples. Telling an interviewer anything specific about what you’re doing in the bathroom is odd, “I need to make a bowel movement” is weird too. Comparing a deceased person’s items to excrement is bad, calling it junk would be bad too but that doesn’t make junk a swear word. The third one isn’t really off-putting because of the word to me and is more about the attitude, even if they said something like “I don’t take flak from anyone” I’d have the same reaction.
Indeed, you’d have the same reaction if they said they don’t take “shit” from anyone.
You are making my point on all three examples: the direct reference to making a bowel movement is vulgar, there’s no situation where “crap” is totally fine and “shit” is not… because crap is only very mildly less vulgar than shit, they are both vulgar references to feces.
I can keep on coming up with examples. The doctor says, “I need a stool sample,” vs. the doctor saying, “I need a sample of your crap, please.” Substitute shit and it is not particularly more shocking; neither works.
Give it a try: what’s an example where “shit” would be shocking, and “crap” would be totally acceptable?
No, a doctor saying they need a shit sample is definitely more shocking than using a medical term, lmao
Maybe crap has different cultural connotations where I’m from because it’s definitely not a slightly less vulgar version of shit. It’s extremely less vulgar. Or maybe you need to go ask that English teacher what the definition of slightly is.
Are you from the UK? Because this is a UK thread.
👀 Whoops.