Canadians are known for their politeness, but a recent study reveals that our reputation for being well-mannered doesn’t extend to our online vocabulary.
Surprisingly, Canada has secured a spot among the top 10 most potty-mouthed nations in the world, coming in fifth place. Yes, you read that right—despite our friendly “sorry” culture, it seems we’ve got a bit of a sailor’s tongue when it comes to tweeting.
Wordtips, a popular word finder tool for games like Scrabble and Words with Friends, analyzed a staggering 1.7 million English-language tweets to uncover which countries are the most likely to drop a few choice words online. As English continues to dominate as the primary language on the internet, swearing has become increasingly common, and Canadians are no exception.
“It used to be that the only media you could consume was highly edited,” says Benjamin Bergen, author of What the F: What Swearing Reveals About Our Language, Our Brains, and Ourselves. “With social media, all of a sudden now we have direct access to people’s informal language. If we have access to people’s informal communication and it includes more profanity, that just means we’re going to be exposed to more of it and that’s going to normalize it, and so people have become inured.”
Topping the Word Tips list is the United States, where 41.6 out of every 1,000 tweets contain profanity. The UK follows in second place with 28.6 tweets per 1,000 featuring curse words, and Australia takes third place with 26.6. New Zealand isn’t far behind, securing the fourth spot with 25.2 tweets per 1,000 using some colourful language.
Then there’s Canada, comfortably landing in fifth place with 24.6 profanity-laden posts per 1,000 tweets. It turns out, even in a nation famed for its politeness, we’re not shy about letting off a little steam online.
Interestingly, all of the top five swearing nations have English as their official or co-official language. This isn’t just because these countries tweet more often in English—it’s a reflection of the fact that swearing is deeply ingrained in the way we communicate online.
On the flip side, countries where English isn’t the primary language, like Bahrain, Azerbaijan, and Saudi Arabia, showed significantly lower rates of online swearing. For instance, in Kuwait, only 3.6 out of every 1,000 tweets contained profanity, making it the least potty-mouthed nation surveyed.
Jean-Marc Dewaele, a professor of linguistics, offers some insight into this trend. He suggests that people who speak English as a second language may be less likely to swear because they’re not as familiar with the nuances and cultural context of swearing. Moreover, censorship in certain regions also plays a role, making it less likely for individuals to learn or use offensive language.
So, while Canada may be all about “please” and “thank you” in person, it seems that online, we’re not afraid to spice up our language a bit. Whether it’s frustration, excitement, or just plain old internet banter, Canadians are proving that when it comes to swearing on Twitter, now known as X, we can hold our own with the best of them.
