To be honest, I’ve said curse words before and in no way am I saying that cursing is wrong 100% of the time. Sure, you can get angry and in high-stress situations sometimes words just fly out of our mouths and we don’t stop to examine what we’re saying; there are plenty of justifications for why one would swear and why it’s okay to do so. But in reality, there are equally as many, if not more reasons why you shouldn’t curse.

1. People get offended

This most definitely doesn’t apply to everyone (because if you curse you obviously aren’t offended by it because you are the one saying it,) but there are some people out there who don’t like cursing. Especially if it’s in the context of an insult towards that person—there are so many other ways you could express your anger/other negative feelings towards another person but to use a swear word just makes it worse. It doesn’t even help your argument when you’re angry at the person, it just makes you seem more like the wrong one because you’re using offensive language. I understand that in high-stress situations sometimes cursing is inevitable, but keep in mind that there are people who find your choice of words to be offensive.

2. It can be rude

The most common instance of this is when I see no clear reason why the swear word was used. There really isn’t a reason to curse sometimes, and the only thing it does is make the person on the receiving end feel uncomfortable. Dropping f-bombs in the middle of a conversation is really random, doesn’t make any sense in any sort of context and is incredibly rude especially if you find curse words offensive.

3. It’s self-centered (sometimes)

If you know someone doesn’t like it when you curse, don’t do it. You’re just affirming the fact that you don’t care what the other person thinks of you and you don’t care that they’re getting offended. Again, this is a generalization and I’m sure is not the case for everyone out there.

4. You save your parents a lot of trouble (if they’re against cursing)

This doesn’t apply to the more “chill” parents who don’t think it’s wrong for their children to curse, but a large portion of parents have negative sentiments on children cursing. Save yourself the pain of getting yelled at/lectured by your parents/guardians and just stop cursing so often.

5. Profanity can make you sound ignorant and lazy

There are thousands upon millions of words in the English language, and I’m sure you can pick another word or another phrase that can express exactly what you mean without cursing. Don’t pick the easy way out and try to make the biggest impact by swearing because it doesn’t work. Honestly, it can make you sound uneducated at times because you’re expressing yourself in rash, caustic language and disregarding the social ramifications of cursing and receiving party’s sentiments on cursing.

6. You’re setting a bad example

The language you use sets a precedent for others. Younger people hear your language and model their speech after the example you’ve set. It’s not only younger people that follow your example either if you freely curse in front of someone, they may assume that you’re okay with this kind of language and will be more likely to swear in front of you, perpetuating the cycle of bad language.

7. How you practice is how you play

If you keep swearing in your daily life and include these words in your conversations, you’re inevitably going to swear in all your interactions, not just your casual dialogues. I really don’t think it’s beneficial if you say a bad word in front of your boss or teacher, and it’ll probably decrease your brownie points (unless they don’t care—that’s another case.) All you’re doing is creating a habit that can take ages to grow out of.