pardonnez mon français

From a French calque of pardon my French, perhaps from the irony of using actual French to apologize for the "French" (obscenity) the speaker worries might cause offense.

pardonnez mon français

1. (humorous) Synonym of pardon my French.
   • 1988, Trey Ellis, chapter 28, in Platitudes (Vintage Contemporaries), New York, N.Y.: Vintage Books, →ISBN, page 100:

     Out on the street, the bald guy, you know, Julie’s, pulls out these car keys and heads straight for this pink Buick Electra convertible! They could just die, and the little runt is grinning like a shiteater, pardonnez mon français.

   • 1996 September 10, Wayne Delia, “The Question: Is God "All Powerful"?”, in alt.bible‎^[1] (Usenet), archived from the original on 18 May 2025:

     Pardonnez mon francais, mais why the fuck did God distribute these "possessions" of ours so unevenly?

   • 1998 July 12, Tony Fitzgerald, “NB.FRANCAIS”, in nb.general‎^[2] (Usenet), archived from the original on 18 May 2025:

     I always thought it was "tabernacle" and, for emphasis "chalice du tabernacle." (pardonnez mon Français, SVP) I was always amused how the expression would shock les vieilles femmes de Caraquet where I spent the summers in my youth but these same women used four letter English expletives without a seconds' thought.

   • 2003 February 11, Dave, “OT: Blair plagarizes, Powell quotes and praises it?”, in alt.guitar.amps‎^[3] (Usenet), archived from the original on 19 May 2025:

     Clearly Saddam wants to push things up until the eleventh hour, and is seriously testing his limits. Therein lies his unwillingness to cooperate, and his potential for further wrongdoing. Therefore, one way or another, that fucker has got to go, pardonnez mon Francais.

   • 2003 August 31, Barry Egan, “Steady, Eddie”, in Sunday Independent, Dublin, →ISSN, →OCLC, “Living” section, page 3, column 3:

     “Can you imagine me buying something off someone?” he [Eddie Irvine] asks. “What is the point? I was in Paris the other week and I met this guy who was doing cocaine, out of his hand. I’m thinking: Get a f**king life!” Pardonnez mon francais, but Eddie Irvine has a f***ing life all right. Apart from the Ferraris, the helicopter, the private jet and the millions in the bank, he has two houses in Dalkey (“I love Dalkey — it’s one of the most special places in the world”), an apartment in New York he has slept in four nights in as many years, homes in Miami, St-Tropez, Macau and Milan, and a floating shag-palace called Anaconda which he keeps moored in the bay off Portofino.

   • 2006, Amir Parsa, chapter 10, in Drive-by Cannibalism in the Baroque Tradition: or, The Book of Being Sick of It All: It All It All It All, Multiplied by Infinity, Brooklyn, N.Y.: UpSet Press, published 2015, →ISBN, part II, page 221:

     His zeal for sports and for following them on TV, and his excessive taste for long celebrations and orgiastic festivities were also wearing thin on some of his lieutenants, those frontline soldiers who had gone through, pardonnez mon français, hell and back, jumping up and down and leading strangers astray and murdering and chopping them and then eating them along with pals.

   • 2006 March 1, Ian Rastall, “Here's a thought”, in alt.support.anxiety-panic.moderated‎^[4] (Usenet), archived from the original on 19 May 2025:

     I think the second part is that I receive and believe messages that I'm a bad person. This is (pardonnez mon français) bullshit, and maybe I'm not just speaking about my own problems here, but maybe someone can relate, and realize that they're also being handed a steaming load of emotional crap.

Calque of English pardon my French.

pardonnez mon français

1. (rare, used by English-speakers) pardon my French
   • 1996 August 19, George Wenzel, “Removing MBR infectors from DDO drives (PC)”, in comp.virus‎^[5] (Usenet), archived from the original on 18 May 2025:

     Pardonnez mon francais, mais ca, c'est BULLSHIT.

     Pardon my French, but that is BULLSHIT.

   • 1997 [1989], Allan Gurganus, translated by Élisabeth Peellaert, “En dessous [Below]”, in Lucy Marsden raconte tout [Lucy Marsden Tells All] (Collection Feux Croisés), Paris: Plon, →ISBN, book 4 (Ce sont des choses qui arrivent [These Things Happen]), section 2, page 604:

     C’était l’odeur des gens excités par l’amour (pardonnez mon français, Miss Coincée, mais si vous habitiez dans nos quartiers avec tout ce matrimonial dans une seule pièce, vous l’auriez sentie, vous aussi).

     [original: Were the scent of people worked up love-wise (forgive my French, Miss Prissy—but if you lived out in you own quarter with all that matrimony in one room, you’d of smelled it, too).]

   • 2001 October 26, Alex Williams, “Qu'est que "BS" ? [What is "BS"?]”, in fr.lettres.langue.anglais‎^[6] (Usenet), archived from the original on 19 May 2025:

     | > [Alex Williams:] Que signifie "BS" dans le couplet suivant, extrait de la chanson
     |
     | [joye:] "Bullshit" (pardonnez mon français)
     Merci :-)

     | > [Alex Williams:] What does "BS" mean in the following verse from the song
     |
     | [joye:] "Bullshit" (pardon my French)
     Thanks :-)

   • 2006, José Frèches, “Londres, Nickerbocker Club, 12 octobre 1845, 15 h 30 [London, Nickerbocker Club, 12 October 1845, 15:30]”, in La Guerre de l’opium [The Opium War] (L’Empire des larmes [The Empire of Tears]; 1), Paris: Éditions France Loisirs, published 2007, →ISBN, page 95:

     Merde ! Heuh… pardonnez mon français, monsieur !

     Shit! Uh… pardon my French, sir!

   • 2009, Jenny Salgado, “Spit White”, in Elizabeth Blood, J. Vincent H. Morrissette, Je me souviens : Histoire, culture, et littérature du Québec francophone [I Remember: History, Culture, and Literature of French-Speaking Quebec], Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, published 2014, →ISBN, chapter 6 (Pluralité [Plurality]), page 191:

     Pardonnez mon français, / Quand vous me dites à votre tour : / Spit White! retourne dans ton pays! / Et que je vous dis : « Mon pays, c n’est pas un pays, c’est l’Amour! » / Get manman ou!

     Pardon my French, / When you say to me in turn: / Spit White! go back to your country! / And I say to you: “My country is not a country, it is Love!” / Fuck you!

   • 2017 May 18, Floran Cazeau, “Mr Didier Le Bret”, in Nuits de melancolie, jours d’Ivresse, [Bloomington, Ind.]: Trafford Publishing, →ISBN:

     Eclairez-moi, Mr Le Bret, / Et pardonnez mon français! / Je pensais que votre mission était / De promouvoir la paix! […] Votre geste barbare à l’égard de mon président, / Au contraire, / N’a fait que […] dévoiler vos intensions sadiques, […]

     Enlighten me, Mr. Le Bret, / And pardon my French! / I thought that your mission was / To promote peace! […] Your barbaric gesture towards my president, / On the contrary, / Has only […] revealed your sadistic intentions, […]

   • 2023 [2010], Edward Winterhalder, James Richard Larson, chapter 48, in Le Miroir [The Mirror] (Une histoire de motard [A Biker’s Story]; 2), Jension, Mich.: Blockhead City, →ISBN:

     Ce satané SS grimpe partout du côté de l'Iowa. Pardonnez mon français, Mme Kingsley.

     [original: The damn SS is climbin’ all over the place on the Iowa side. Pardon my French, Mrs. Kingsley.]

2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see pardonnez,‎ mon,‎ français.
   • 1994, Geneviève Schurer, Barbie chez la reine [Barbie at the Queen’s] (Mini-Club), Chevron, Stoumont: Hemma, →ISBN, page 33:

     Bonjour, dit madame Hansen en inclinant la tête. Mais pardonnez mon français qui n’est pas très bon…

     Good morning, said Mrs. Hansen, inclining her head. But excuse my French, which isn’t very good…