So, if something surprised the heck out of a pre-teen, what do they shout?
To be a little more specific, if someone suddenly gave me an injection from a needle without any real warning, I might should out "Jesus Christ!" or "What the f***!" but everything I can think of that I would squeal out sounds a bit too adult, and I don't have any 12 year olds convenient to poke with a sharp stick as experiment.
Any ideas?
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50,199 / 50,000
Dec 1, 2008 - 12 25
Some twelve year olds, unfortunately, do cuss. Boys especially might yell out: "What the hell!?" But if you wanted to keep out any vulgarity, I could see the twelve-year-old reacting violently to the poke, pushing the offender away, and spitting out: "AGH! Ow! What was that for?"
Or something along those lines. Your young character could bite his tongue and muffle his curse. You could have him not say anything in quotations at all but simply remark "he cursed". You've got the power!
Otherwise, I would take a toothpick or something and travel to the nearest middle school...Kidding.
90,015 / 50,000
Dec 1, 2008 - 12 38
My twelve-year-old talks a lot about "fudge" when there's a teacher within earshot. That was after the second swearing essay...
80,466 / 50,000
Dec 1, 2008 - 12 48
I might actually go with something a bit more vulgar than a typical twelve-year old. I'm going back and writing about something in the past of this character, and she did grow up to be a fairly foul-mouthed young adult, so this might be a good place to have that originate...
Then again, the toothpick idea has merit...
----------50,040 / 50,000
Dec 1, 2008 - 12 49
My 11-year-old sister makes up her own exclamations a lot, I think that's sort of something that the middle schoolers around here do. She'll say things like "holy geez" or "heaven and heck!"
----------"The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair; and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater."
-J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring
80,466 / 50,000
Dec 1, 2008 - 12 56
Coincidentally, my placeholder exclamation was "holy jeez!" so that might be a winner, too. :)
----------281 / 50,000
Dec 1, 2008 - 13 48
knarley,
tubular,
holy moses,
I'd guess that just about anything you could imagine would fit the situation. Kids (as Art Linkletter observed) say the darndest things.
30,146 / 50,000
Dec 1, 2008 - 14 34
My older daughter would certainly have said, "shit." My younger one would probably say "ow". If your character grows up to be foul mouthed, I think mild/moderate swearing is entirely likely by 12!
50,133 / 50,000
Dec 1, 2008 - 20 12
It depends on the preteen. I didn't swear when I was little (still don't for religious reasons), so I'd say, "Ow!" and such, "What the heck!" or "Goodness gracious!" My boyfriend (same religion) says, "Jubah!" as his exclamation. Make one up if you want.
----------Nano 2005: Legend of Jael (Won)
Nano 2006: Diary in the Attic (Won)
Nano 2007: Reel Smuggling (Won)
Nano 2008: Those We Lost (A challenge, but it will work--I've got a winning pattern happening)
76,494 / 50,000
Dec 1, 2008 - 22 43
Sugar! That's what my ten-year-old nephew says. Usually with emphasis on the SH sound (like "sh*t").
50,017 / 50,000
Dec 1, 2008 - 22 44
Everyone I knew (self included) were quite foul mouthed in junior high, so cussing is definitely not out of the question
For me, I'd try to tone it down if adults were around, usually to a "holy crap!" or something along those lines
0 / 50,000
Dec 1, 2008 - 23 33
I second the "Holy crap." I learned early on that it was not okay to say "shit," but "crap" was okay and meant the same thing. It was my only cuss word until I was fourteen.
0 / 50,000
Dec 2, 2008 - 00 14
Damnit!
Was my favourite one, and my sister (who is twelve now) tends to sady "You!" and then bite her bottom lip and puff out her cheeks and you know she's thinking all sorts of swear words she's not allowed to say.
50,160 / 50,000
Dec 2, 2008 - 09 21
My 12-year-old uses "What the hell!" and "What the crap!?" He uses "WTH!" mostly when something is just kinda weird. He uses "WTC!?" when something has really pissed him off. WTC cracks me up because it's not a common usage for the term crap, kind of a phrase a kid might put together. (He gets rebuked for both exclamations.)
My 8-year-old uses "Snap!" a lot, but that would be milder and probably not sufficient for the unexpected needle!
----------Jo's Story ~ NaNoWriMo 2008 ~ Win
50,057 / 50,000
Dec 2, 2008 - 14 30
Sugar Honey Iced Tea,
Shitaki Mushrooms
Firetruck,
What the helicopter.
Just a few of the things my friends and I have made up when we don't want to cuss.
----------2008- Locked Away: WINNER!
50,347 / 50,000
Dec 2, 2008 - 16 16
Well, when I was twelve, we were just discovering that saying "crap" didn't get you thrown into jail. It was only a year later that the real swearing broke out (and in my middle school, there was and still is way too much), but as we had just left the safety of 6th grade (which, here, is elementary school), "crap" seemed very cool and daring.
I was such a good little kid back then...I used to feel guilty about saying "crap" at all. How did I get to be such a potty mouth?
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Dec 2, 2008 - 17 00
Whenever I was injured unexpectidly in middle school I would go "What the f...." and bite my lips over the rest of the word so it sounded like "Fffff". That might work. Swearing is quite common by twelve years old, so it wouldn't be unusual.
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Dec 2, 2008 - 17 07
I have a character about that age who says "Crap!"
----------Vulgar enough for a twelve-year-old without pulling out the PG-13 rating.
WOO HOO!!! now where's the pie?
2,249 / 50,000
Dec 2, 2008 - 17 18
When I was twelve, that was about the age that I learned that "hell" is a place, not an expletive, it's in the Bible. So that was all right.
----------"Excellence is the act of taking something ordinary and making it extraordinary." Booker T. Washington
55,555 / 50,000
Dec 2, 2008 - 17 55
boy: "What the heck (hell) are you doing?" or slap the person.
Girl: ""ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh what's wrong with you?"
----------The End are the most sad and happy words known to man.
75,332 / 50,000
Dec 2, 2008 - 18 15
I was on a bus the other day with several primary school aged girls -- so the oldest would've been eleven or twelve. The bus lurched and sent one of them flying. This sweet-looking little girl let rip with 'Oh fuck!'.
So, yeah, I think even preteens might swear, particularly in the scenario you described.
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Dec 2, 2008 - 20 10
I had a huge potty mouth when I was twelve. I think that, if a kid has started cursing, they'd use the words a little bit more (like using "hell" whenever possible). I've definitely seen twelve-year-olds cursing, especially in this sort of situation.
If adults are around, then I could see them changing, like, "shit" to "hell," or something. I'm not allowed to curse, but I would away from my mom. In front of her, I used crap excessively.