The Penguin Podcast is back! Listen Now
How to Swear

How to Swear

Summary

Grasping how to swear is a crucial skill to any English-speaker, but it can be a tricky business. Owing to the rich and complex history of swearing, a single word can have a host of different meanings – from expressing surprise, excitement, anger, celebration, disgust or simply that you’re fucked off. If you don’t get it right, you could really be in the shit.

How to Swear, by graphic artist and swearing-connoisseur Stephen Wildish, uses all manner of charts and flow diagrams to teach you all you need to know, including: the building blocks of an effective insult; the adverbial uses of various types of animal excrement (horseshit, apeshit etc); and the different parts of speech a swear word can fulfil: ‘Fucking fuck, the fucking fucker’s fucked’. This charming (and rude) book will take you right to the heart of the wondrous world of swearing, with a lot of laughs on the way.

About the author

Stephen Wildish

Stephen Wildish is a graphic designer specialising in illustration and infographics. He is the author of How to Swear, How to Adult and How to Vegan, and lives in Marlborough.
Learn More

Sign up to the Penguin Newsletter

For the latest books, recommendations, author interviews and more