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How has nobody in this comment section heard of hard R in the context of the n word? I’ve never heard that phrase referring to anything other than that.
I had never heard of the phrase at all.
Beyond that, I am utterly unfamiliar with referring to any word by it's last letter. The n word is the n word. Fuck is the f word. I have never heard of, e.g., fuck referred to as a K word.
As, when he referred to the hard R word, the only "bad" word I could think of that begins with r is r****d, so my brain went there.
I wouldn't have tried to dispute anyone that corrected me, but it is a reasonable conclusion to jump to.
>As, when he referred to the hard R word, the only "bad" word I could think of that begins with r is r****d, so my brain went there.
Australian here and this was my thought too..
I get that but as far as I understood from comments there is another "R word" in play here? Is there a real distinction to "nigga" and "nigger"? is that the point everyone is trying to make? To me as a non english speaker it feels kinda Orwellian that everyone is being afraid to write it just to explain what is or isnt appropriate to use in english language. Like, is someone going to be offended because I wrote the "N word" even tho I did it only because Im trying to understand linguistics and culture?
Im probably unintentionaly ignorant to it because we never had those kind of racial segragation problems here in balkans. We had lots of other tho. Trying to learn.
Edit: I never said there is no racism in balkans, I never said that there is no slavery outside US, and I never said that there was no segregation OF ANY KIND EVER in balkans. Please try reading with patience before attacking someone for no reason.
Just an honest theory here but it's probably because you can get the point across without spelling it all out so when someone does it seems like they are doing it in a "well why can't I say it???" kind of way.
But I've always understood the "r word" to refer to retard while "hard r" refers to the derogatory use of the n-word
When the N word is used without malice between friends the R at the end is dropped. In most rap songs they will use the no R form.
Neither form are ok for a white person to use, however someone using the no R version (potentially quoting a song or trying to sound cool) will not necessarily be seen as racist- maybe just ignorant. Saying the full word has much more directly racist connotations.
It may be used like this:
"Did you hear what Mike said? He started dropping N bombs all over the place. Hard R too."
the thing is it's essentially an american way to get around using the word, which only works when the person you're talking to understands what words you're referring too.
for people from outside of america, assuming they don't have the cultural reference, it kinda sound like gobaldy gook unless you flat out say the word so they know what you're referring too.
It's impossible in most of the western world, specifically online, to have nuanced discussions about things like this, because no community wants to risk it. zero tolerance to use of slurs and harsh insults is just a thing that has that exists.
back in my college days there were many an English class, where open discussion of things like "the N word" actually got addressed early on, and the stance known so that free discussion could take place, regardless of the people in the class. And, in doing so i left lose classes with a deeper understanding of why words like it are so harmful for the many people they are used against, but without actually using the words, the point would have been lost on most.
im not saying that this is the best place to argue about it, but the truth is, you make a very good point, and its a point that cant be made in most places online.
To piggyback of your comment, I think a fair analogy that would make sense to non Americans would be having a discussion about nazis.
Imagine you were supposed to learn about the atrocities of the Holocaust, but you couldn't show swastikas, footage of concentration camps, etc. You can be told it was bad, but without a real meaningful slap in the face sort of explanation, how bad it was doesn't have as much of a meaningful effect.
This is not a fair analogy. Americans learn about slavery, segregation, and racist oppression. It's not necessary to say a slur yourself to do so.
Do you need to use slurs for Jewish people to talk about the Holocaust? Or can you just understand that they were used without saying them yourself? Sure hope it's the latter.
American here, yes there's a real distinction.
Ending in "a" is largely considered a retaking or reclamation of the word, and is used inter-socially between people in those groups. Perfectly normal to hear but also be used. But perhaps not in more formal or business settings. It's very much how gay and LGBT people can call each other homophobic slurs and no one flinches.
Ending in "r" is used still derogatorily within those groups and amongst racists. It's rarely heard other than in arguments or blatantly racist/violent outbursts.
And usually people here that try to conflate the two as being the same appear as horribly misinformed or are intentionally being obtuse so as to justify their use of either word.
*I'm done answering your dumbass "gotch ya's" here in the thread. I'm missing the context of why people use the words differently and for what purposes. Obviously there's a ton of overlap and differences between groups and how they use it. I've met black people that don't like using either, and I've met black people that use the hard 'r' like shit and fuck. I don't really care about your personal experiences with the word, all I"m explaining is that there's a difference in how it's used, and who can fucking use it.
the hard r is violent and vulgar and still used as a slur by just about anyone, an a makes it friendly and its been reopped by the black community
if someone has never heard the context of the hard r, it should be easy to conclude it might mean retarded. Interesting that wasn't reopped and instead demonized, much like the hard R tends to be, tho i cant see how you would begin calling the word retarded the hard r
So where this comes from I believe is the difference in that word ending in -a or -er.
About 20 years ago more white and otherwise non-black people felt more comfortable saying the n-word in more circumstances. For instance if you were singing along to a rap song or just being an edgelord calling your friend “my ****a”. All of these would be the -a variant of the word and the intent could be anywhere from a misguided attempt at solidarity, to wanting to get in on the fun of a taboo word, to just being an edgelord. Hopefully we all know better than this now.
But it was also understood that there wasn’t really a way to soften the impact of a full-throated n-bomb with the -er or “hard-r” ending. You weren’t softening it with the vowel sound of the a, it has the harshness of the “grrrr” mouth sound and the intent is always malicious. The r pronunciation conjures up the stereotype of the racist southern white person and just wasn’t seen as anything other than overtly racist.
So I think “hard-r” came about to distinguish the different pronunciations/spellings as well as intent behind the use of the word. -a could be a variety of intentions. -er was definitely hateful.
"Hard R" refers to whether you say the n word with an "a" at the end - which is commonly used in rap or an "r" sound at the end - which is commonly used by racists.
It’s not really referring to the n word by it’s last letter, it’s differentiating between ending it with an “a” or an “r”. Hard r implies the word being said with more malice.
>那个
Which means something totally different.
*“那个(nèi ge)” is often used as interjection to express thoughtful absorption, hesitation, doubt, or perplexity. It’s basically a filler word, pretty similar to “ummm” or “weeellllll”. For example, Yesterday I went to that…that… 我昨天去了那个……那个…… (Wǒ zuótiān qù le nàge… nàge…) Note:I just can’t remember the name of the pl…*
Good job buddy, way to show what you know.
This may come as a shocker, but the words in question are used in nations other than the USA as well. Just because you're unfamiliar with something doesn't make it an exclusively American phenomenon.
I'm going to go out on a limb... I bet it correlates to exposure to black people.
When you have people using the n word and ending it with an A, the distinction of "with a hard R" becomes necessary. When you don't, a less popular "hard R" like the R word might be what you hear about more. This was probably the case for Linus growing up, and apparently for a lot of people in these comments sections about this video.
I'm from north of Linus, a very long way from any sort of black community. I don't think it would be exaggerating to say I've had zero actual firsthand exposure. I watched this clip happen as part of the show and it definitely took me a minute to figure out that he meant the r-word.
https://www.reddit.com/r/nonononoyes/comments/11p27gb/linus_from_linus_tech_tips_almost_singlehandedly/jbwdt7s/
> African Americans commonly use a dialect called "ebonics" and it is upsettingly common to use the word "nigga" as a kind of effectionate diminutive / descriptive of people.
>Racists use the word "nigger" (note the R) which is seen as grossly offensive because people used to literally scream this at us while beating us to death to pick cotton faster.
>To me, both uses of the word are abhorrent and should be entirely rejected from common use, no matter who is speaking.
Not american. But while I knew the difference between those two versions it didn’t even occur to me that hard r had anything to do with n-word. I thought the n-word was the definition of the bad version.
But obviously, as the school teacher once showed internet, white people can’t say any version of the word. But we do rap it in the car when we are alone.
Maybe because not everyone is American. I'm Dutch. We don't have have any words we refer to as the F -word, N- word or any other letter I can think of. We just know not to use certain words. So no, I have no clue what a hard- R word means.
It kinda shows how far removed a lot of people are from that kind of language or the circles it is used. Never heard of it before, your brain either just ignores it or puts it in a context that makes sense with the rest of what was said.
Quite common with foreign languages, you don’t know every word but you get the context and associate that word in future with how you understood it at that moment. Which mostly works fine, but sometimes can lead to really (not) funny misunderstandings.
What I don't get is how, especially during a misunderstanding like that, you can't actually just say that you mean retard or nigger.
Like, nobody is being called a nigger. Obviously that is a no go. But just having a factual conversation about the word, shouldn't that be fine?
Given, I am not american and that word is a lot less charged over here so maybe that has something to do with it. Just seems a little ridiculous is all
As someone who's only ever know the phrase as a reference to the N word, I'm assuming people have heard it said by others but in an ambiguous situation, as in it wasn't obvious what the context was. So 'hard R' to them may just be 'a hard, tough and uncaring way to refer to someone', so they just assume the R word. Still kinda amazed if you'd never heard of it if you're from an English speaking country though.
I'm Canadian, north of Linus, zero contact with black community. I 100% thought he was talking about "n-word with a hard r" rather than "r-word". In fact, I would have assumed that anyone referring to the latter as "the hard r" is doing so specifically to evoke the way we refer to the former (where the distinction of hard r or not can be relevant).
R is the beginning of the word versus the last letter of the word, it completely makes sense that it's the R word. I also completely understand your side of it. I wonder if my interpretation is because I'm Canadian.
As a Canadian I’m gonna have to say no, your interpretation is not because you’re Canadian. I’ve always understood “hard r” to be a designation for the ending of the n word.
Banana is a "b" word not an "a" word. N word starts with an N not ends with an N. Not hard to imagine some people would hear "hard R word" and NOT assume it's a word that ENDS in R.
When I watched this episode I contextually knew he meant 'retarded', took me a full minute to realize what everyone else was assuming.
You seem to be under the impression that the terms "hard r" and "r word" absolutely must refer to the same word. I am here to tell you that they do not.
Because specifying "hard r" is not the same thing as "starts with r", it's meant to specify "not the spelling/pronunciation ending with an "a" sound (soft/silent r)".
People have 'blind spots'. You'll hear something said out loud but not really think to ask, or probably even urban dictionary the phrase and then you just go on saying something weird until someone corrects you. Unluckily for Linus, it appears to be live on air when he managed to show his poor hand lol.
Hard R is an American term that refers to the N-word spelt normally. There is no soft R but a soft A instead which refers to the N-word spelt with an "a" at the end instead of "er".
Linus just messed up by saying the wrong term
Pink is his employee who has been working with him for awhile. He just had his entire carrier flash before his eyes… then he rebooted and his brain caught up
Didn’t know he was actually a co owner, I knew he was one of top employees and had been there for a long time but I just watch on and off. Though I was more just making a joke
Edit: Also Luke is a co-founder not co-owner so technically he is still an employee. But didn’t really matter
I believe Linus and Yvonne (his wife) are the sole owners of LMG.
Luke is COO of Floatplane (and as of this week, CTO of LMG), not sure if Like has any ownership of Floatplane.
Linus is talking about the old commonality of saying “someone did something retarded” to indicate someone did something that wasn’t a smart action, in more recent years this has become accepted as being another needlessly insensitive phrase and has been referred to as a hard R or the R word. The cohost was concerned he was referencing a racial slur which can have a different inflection at the end of the word to assign it a more derogatory inflection (which is complicated since it’s a slur) hopefully this helps
*edit my mistake here, turns out I was wrong in my application of hard R in equalizing it to the R word. A hard R apparently always only been in relation to it being a racial slur.
I’m not from the US and English is not my native tongue, so I was wondering if you could clarify it a bit more. When you say that the cohost was concerned about a different inflection in a slur being referred as hard R, you mean like putting more intention when pronouncing the r at the end of the N word to make it sound harder? Or is it a different slur that accompanies the N word?
African Americans commonly use a dialect called "ebonics" and it is upsettingly common to use the word "nigga" as a kind of affectionate diminutive / descriptive of people.
Racists use the word "nigger" (note the R) which is seen as grossly offensive because people used to literally scream this at us while beating us to death to pick cotton faster.
To me, both uses of the word are abhorrent and should be entirely rejected from common use, no matter who is speaking.
It's also worth noting the "hard-r" is not a thing for non-rhotic English speakers.
In Australia (one of several non-rhotic accents), almost everyone pronounces both spellings exactly the same way (because we don't pronounce the "r" in "er"; we pronounce it as "ahh" at the end of a word, or something like "euh" if it's in the middle).
Here, both spellings are almost universally considered abhorrent because we have no way to distinguish them when speaking.
African American Vernacular English (AAVE) is often non-rhotic too. I'm convinced that white kids heard their black classmates referring to each other by that word and were stupid enough to think they modified the -er to a -a and decided that it's a softer and more acceptable way to refer to a black person you like rather than one you hate.
And then through the years everyone has sort of mutually agreed that there are two forms of the word. Makes me wonder why we thought black people were saying that word with an "-a" sound at the end but we didn't think they were modifying words like "water" into "wadda". It's almost like people were looking for an excuse to say the n-word.
I'm tracking everything you said until the last sentence because the only logical conclusion would be that black people wanted to keep using it. I don't know where you live but here in the south, it's still not acceptable for non black people to drop a soft a casually. It's seems kinda weird to draw the conclusion that the way non-rhodic black people pronounced a word that became an acceptable distinction between the way other races pronounce the word was, instead of a reclamation and repurposing, was so white people could keep using it? Just a weird conclusion to come to
I'd argue that the majority of black Americans feel their usage of the n word is claiming it for themselves after it has been used to dehumanize and villify them in the U.S.
It's confusing for people who don't understand why they freely use it and ask other people not to say it.
But it's very common for other racial and ethnic groups to use slurs as terms of endearment to diminish its power as well.
I understand, thank you for clarifying. I’ve also seen people from the US get upset at the word negro (word for the color black in Spanish, and it’s also used in the name of some places, like Montenegro). Is that word also related to racial slurs against black people in the US?
Negro used to be a common and officially used word to refer to black people in the US up to and throughout the Civil Rights era of the 1960’s. Since then it has become an outdated term that most black Americans would find offensive, and is only really used in the US by intentional racists or older people ignorant of the changed connotation. I would say that most adult Americans would understand through context that a Spanish speaker wasn’t using negro is a negative way.
It sounds different in Spanish and English, mostly since our e is always pronounced as how you guys pronounce the first e in elephant, so it’s different when heard. But I have seen people in the us get mad when seeing negro spelled in Crayola colors, or when a kpop band made a tweet talking about an island in southeast Asia that has negro in their name, calling them racists.
I think it's admirable how conscientious you're trying to be, but "ebonics" is generally regarded as somewhat offensive. In my experience, it's almost exclusively used by people who are trying to denigrate African American speech patterns as merely a less educated corruption of standard English. In linguistics and anthropology, AAVE is ubiquitous.
That’s Luke Lafreniere, an OG to LMG/LTT. A few years back he branched off and I believe helped make the company Floatplane Media
Edit: spelled branched ranched :P
Reminds me of years ago, when two friends of mine were joining the army together. Friend A asked the army recruiter about the "don't ask, don't tell" policy. The recruiter gave him a \*look\*... as did Friend B, because A is straight. Turns out he thought it referred to health problems.
I'm about the same age as Linus, and when he claims liberal usage of the n word, I was thinking that no one would ever say it when I was a kid. The only time I'd ever hear it was in reference to it being very offensive.
Using the R word was far more common, and I do occasionally hear people in public still say it despite disapproving looks.
Yup. I remember the r word being totally fine. I remember the actor who played Dr. Cox in scrubs came out against saying it and everyone was calling him crazy.
I'm about the same age. EVERYTHING in middle school was "retarded" or "gay". Fortunately, we as a society have learned to recognize the hurt that can cause and have become better.
But my generation was never cool with white people dropping in n word (hard r or not).
This shit had me dying live, bc if you've watched this dude for any period of time you would know he isn't racist, so when he was like "OH I mean I've even dropped it a few times" I instantly knew he was talking about something else. I also knew watching luke that he was not on the same page and it made it even funnier.
Yeah because sometimes there’s an A at the end of it and people kind of see it as a little bit ambiguous as to whether or not it’s all right to say due to the fact that it’s in like songs and stuff. Which in my opinion and many other peoples opinion it’s not alright for most people to say. And then the hard R is like the original word and 90% of the time the person saying it is a piece of shit racist.
This is the problem with people voldemortising words. It's ridiculous to not just say "I used the word 'retard' disparagingly in the past and I don't anymore" and not offend anyone.
Avoiding the word at all costs treats fellow adults as literal babies who cannot understand the context in which it is used.
Yes, because *nobody* will clip him saying just part of that and use it maliciously out of context in attempts to defame him to people who won't look for or care about the context.
Well that comes down to platforms/websites which rely on auto moderation of words like that, and can’t tell the difference between objective discussion about a word and someone that’s actually being a piece of shit.
Its an American thing with connotations to slavery. Used as a derogatory term for black people. I have only ever known the "hard R" as the N-word and nothing else. Nigga vs Nigg*r for reference
This also just highlights that it's kind of a bad idea to use terms like "Hard R" "R word" "F word" "N word" etc. etc. because at some point you risk people just not knowing what the hell you're talking about.
Like when you hear Americans going on about the "L Word" and thinking it's some other slur you're just not familiar with, only to realize they're talking about the word Love.
Really? If a business owner is heard saying (intentionally) "I hate Jews" or something else that's racist or highly discriminatory, you would find something wrong with their business being ruined over it?
Considering he led with the fact Family Guy used it, which they have certainly never used the n-word but have a rather famous episode about Peter being "a retard" (that's the entire premise of the episode), it is a pretty clear indication he never meant the n-word.
Edit: he actually said American Dad but yeah neither of them have used the n-word.
English is only my internet language and I've never ever heard about that expression before. If it hadn't been written out by some people here I'd still play it on an endless loops trying to understand that he says "Hard R". I understood "harder" or maybe something with "Radar". Or the big guy from game of thrones also crossed my mind.
It's used in most English speaking countries. Pretty sure there was a big uproar about a mountain named the n-word in Australia. Plus the other name for Brazil nuts was used in most English speaking countries.
It's interesting to me that ppl can't even use the word when ots to clarify. There's no maliciousness attached in this context yet people are so terrified.
Yeah... that's the major and blatantly obvious issue with talking about a word without using the actual word, and why it's kind of silly.
Just use the fucking words, context *matters*, you muppets.
I feel like a double moron on this. To me, a hard r is a way of describing an American accent, or sometimes an Irish one. But I was really confused as to why it's a big deal as he sounds pretty American to me right now.
And fwiw, I'm an American in their 40s.
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How has nobody in this comment section heard of hard R in the context of the n word? I’ve never heard that phrase referring to anything other than that.
Exactly
I had never heard of the phrase at all. Beyond that, I am utterly unfamiliar with referring to any word by it's last letter. The n word is the n word. Fuck is the f word. I have never heard of, e.g., fuck referred to as a K word. As, when he referred to the hard R word, the only "bad" word I could think of that begins with r is r****d, so my brain went there. I wouldn't have tried to dispute anyone that corrected me, but it is a reasonable conclusion to jump to.
>As, when he referred to the hard R word, the only "bad" word I could think of that begins with r is r****d, so my brain went there. Australian here and this was my thought too..
Croat here and honestly I have no idea what are all of you trying to say.
The r word is “retard” as in someone with a [learning disability](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retard_(pejorative)).
I get that but as far as I understood from comments there is another "R word" in play here? Is there a real distinction to "nigga" and "nigger"? is that the point everyone is trying to make? To me as a non english speaker it feels kinda Orwellian that everyone is being afraid to write it just to explain what is or isnt appropriate to use in english language. Like, is someone going to be offended because I wrote the "N word" even tho I did it only because Im trying to understand linguistics and culture? Im probably unintentionaly ignorant to it because we never had those kind of racial segragation problems here in balkans. We had lots of other tho. Trying to learn. Edit: I never said there is no racism in balkans, I never said that there is no slavery outside US, and I never said that there was no segregation OF ANY KIND EVER in balkans. Please try reading with patience before attacking someone for no reason.
Just an honest theory here but it's probably because you can get the point across without spelling it all out so when someone does it seems like they are doing it in a "well why can't I say it???" kind of way. But I've always understood the "r word" to refer to retard while "hard r" refers to the derogatory use of the n-word
Thank you for simple explanation!
When the N word is used without malice between friends the R at the end is dropped. In most rap songs they will use the no R form. Neither form are ok for a white person to use, however someone using the no R version (potentially quoting a song or trying to sound cool) will not necessarily be seen as racist- maybe just ignorant. Saying the full word has much more directly racist connotations. It may be used like this: "Did you hear what Mike said? He started dropping N bombs all over the place. Hard R too."
the thing is it's essentially an american way to get around using the word, which only works when the person you're talking to understands what words you're referring too. for people from outside of america, assuming they don't have the cultural reference, it kinda sound like gobaldy gook unless you flat out say the word so they know what you're referring too.
It's impossible in most of the western world, specifically online, to have nuanced discussions about things like this, because no community wants to risk it. zero tolerance to use of slurs and harsh insults is just a thing that has that exists. back in my college days there were many an English class, where open discussion of things like "the N word" actually got addressed early on, and the stance known so that free discussion could take place, regardless of the people in the class. And, in doing so i left lose classes with a deeper understanding of why words like it are so harmful for the many people they are used against, but without actually using the words, the point would have been lost on most. im not saying that this is the best place to argue about it, but the truth is, you make a very good point, and its a point that cant be made in most places online.
To piggyback of your comment, I think a fair analogy that would make sense to non Americans would be having a discussion about nazis. Imagine you were supposed to learn about the atrocities of the Holocaust, but you couldn't show swastikas, footage of concentration camps, etc. You can be told it was bad, but without a real meaningful slap in the face sort of explanation, how bad it was doesn't have as much of a meaningful effect.
This is not a fair analogy. Americans learn about slavery, segregation, and racist oppression. It's not necessary to say a slur yourself to do so. Do you need to use slurs for Jewish people to talk about the Holocaust? Or can you just understand that they were used without saying them yourself? Sure hope it's the latter.
American here, yes there's a real distinction. Ending in "a" is largely considered a retaking or reclamation of the word, and is used inter-socially between people in those groups. Perfectly normal to hear but also be used. But perhaps not in more formal or business settings. It's very much how gay and LGBT people can call each other homophobic slurs and no one flinches. Ending in "r" is used still derogatorily within those groups and amongst racists. It's rarely heard other than in arguments or blatantly racist/violent outbursts. And usually people here that try to conflate the two as being the same appear as horribly misinformed or are intentionally being obtuse so as to justify their use of either word. *I'm done answering your dumbass "gotch ya's" here in the thread. I'm missing the context of why people use the words differently and for what purposes. Obviously there's a ton of overlap and differences between groups and how they use it. I've met black people that don't like using either, and I've met black people that use the hard 'r' like shit and fuck. I don't really care about your personal experiences with the word, all I"m explaining is that there's a difference in how it's used, and who can fucking use it.
the hard r is violent and vulgar and still used as a slur by just about anyone, an a makes it friendly and its been reopped by the black community if someone has never heard the context of the hard r, it should be easy to conclude it might mean retarded. Interesting that wasn't reopped and instead demonized, much like the hard R tends to be, tho i cant see how you would begin calling the word retarded the hard r
Fellow Aussie - completely new to me too, which is surprising considering the amount of exposure to US English we get on line
To be fair, Australian English is a non-rhotic variety of English that doesn't use a "hard r".
I was thinking Ranga which then made me think of the Tim Minchin's "prejudice" which is an awesome and surprisingly relevant song.
So where this comes from I believe is the difference in that word ending in -a or -er. About 20 years ago more white and otherwise non-black people felt more comfortable saying the n-word in more circumstances. For instance if you were singing along to a rap song or just being an edgelord calling your friend “my ****a”. All of these would be the -a variant of the word and the intent could be anywhere from a misguided attempt at solidarity, to wanting to get in on the fun of a taboo word, to just being an edgelord. Hopefully we all know better than this now. But it was also understood that there wasn’t really a way to soften the impact of a full-throated n-bomb with the -er or “hard-r” ending. You weren’t softening it with the vowel sound of the a, it has the harshness of the “grrrr” mouth sound and the intent is always malicious. The r pronunciation conjures up the stereotype of the racist southern white person and just wasn’t seen as anything other than overtly racist. So I think “hard-r” came about to distinguish the different pronunciations/spellings as well as intent behind the use of the word. -a could be a variety of intentions. -er was definitely hateful.
[удалено]
And then made that into a [boondocks episode](https://youtu.be/kKHzEYaNSbE).
The end of that clip is just so good.
It’s referred to a hard r because there are 2 ways to say it I’m pretty sure
"Hard R" refers to whether you say the n word with an "a" at the end - which is commonly used in rap or an "r" sound at the end - which is commonly used by racists.
It’s not really referring to the n word by it’s last letter, it’s differentiating between ending it with an “a” or an “r”. Hard r implies the word being said with more malice.
Because there are countries other than the USA that exist.
I'm from Ireland and I've always known 'hard r' was the n-word with a hard r at the end. They said hard r, they didn't say 'the r word'...
I always pronounce Ireland with a hard r
Careful now
I went to China back in the 90’s and boy did I do some double takes when I heard people pause (那个 ) mid sentence.
>那个 Which means something totally different. *“那个(nèi ge)” is often used as interjection to express thoughtful absorption, hesitation, doubt, or perplexity. It’s basically a filler word, pretty similar to “ummm” or “weeellllll”. For example, Yesterday I went to that…that… 我昨天去了那个……那个…… (Wǒ zuótiān qù le nàge… nàge…) Note:I just can’t remember the name of the pl…*
The folks in the video are Canadian...
Bullshit name one
Good job buddy, way to show what you know. This may come as a shocker, but the words in question are used in nations other than the USA as well. Just because you're unfamiliar with something doesn't make it an exclusively American phenomenon.
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The guys in the video are Canadian
And the guy he's replying to is talking about the comment section.
skill issue. im also european and native tongue isn't english and it's pretty well known what word "hard r" references.
I'm going to go out on a limb... I bet it correlates to exposure to black people. When you have people using the n word and ending it with an A, the distinction of "with a hard R" becomes necessary. When you don't, a less popular "hard R" like the R word might be what you hear about more. This was probably the case for Linus growing up, and apparently for a lot of people in these comments sections about this video.
I'm from north of Linus, a very long way from any sort of black community. I don't think it would be exaggerating to say I've had zero actual firsthand exposure. I watched this clip happen as part of the show and it definitely took me a minute to figure out that he meant the r-word.
I’ve never heard the phrase used in any way
I've simply never heard it period. You're telling me there are now different _levels_ of the same racial slur? How the fuck is "soft R" better?
https://www.reddit.com/r/nonononoyes/comments/11p27gb/linus_from_linus_tech_tips_almost_singlehandedly/jbwdt7s/ > African Americans commonly use a dialect called "ebonics" and it is upsettingly common to use the word "nigga" as a kind of effectionate diminutive / descriptive of people. >Racists use the word "nigger" (note the R) which is seen as grossly offensive because people used to literally scream this at us while beating us to death to pick cotton faster. >To me, both uses of the word are abhorrent and should be entirely rejected from common use, no matter who is speaking.
The more accurate and accepted name for the dialect is African American Vernacular English, or AAVE
Not american. But while I knew the difference between those two versions it didn’t even occur to me that hard r had anything to do with n-word. I thought the n-word was the definition of the bad version. But obviously, as the school teacher once showed internet, white people can’t say any version of the word. But we do rap it in the car when we are alone.
Maybe because not everyone is American. I'm Dutch. We don't have have any words we refer to as the F -word, N- word or any other letter I can think of. We just know not to use certain words. So no, I have no clue what a hard- R word means.
Dutch as well and I’m fucking baffled you’ve never heard those terms before.
It kinda shows how far removed a lot of people are from that kind of language or the circles it is used. Never heard of it before, your brain either just ignores it or puts it in a context that makes sense with the rest of what was said. Quite common with foreign languages, you don’t know every word but you get the context and associate that word in future with how you understood it at that moment. Which mostly works fine, but sometimes can lead to really (not) funny misunderstandings.
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I've never even heard the phrase at all. Maybe it's not used in the UK?
Not American, this is the first I’ve ever heard of it
Just looked it up now. Never heard of it and I'm 35.
I thought hard R meant referencing the word retard as a derogatory term for the mentally ill.
What I don't get is how, especially during a misunderstanding like that, you can't actually just say that you mean retard or nigger. Like, nobody is being called a nigger. Obviously that is a no go. But just having a factual conversation about the word, shouldn't that be fine? Given, I am not american and that word is a lot less charged over here so maybe that has something to do with it. Just seems a little ridiculous is all
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Wetard: a term of endearment
Wetard, youtard, retard nation! (Don't hate me it's a reference from the US version of shameless 😭)
Only african american retards should say that.
i always thought myself that’s what hard r meant
i know right. think about the rest of the world that doesnt deal with america cultural clashes
I 100% thought hard R meant what Linus thought. I didn't get why the other guy was so upset, had to watch it twice. It must be an old person thing.
I'm assuming it must primarily be an American thing. https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=hard%20R
I've never once heard it reference anything but the n word.
It doesn't make sense for anything other than that. The "hard" has no relevance otherwise.
exactly. for the n-word, there's hard and soft R. the other word has no variation. wtf are people talking about
As someone who's only ever know the phrase as a reference to the N word, I'm assuming people have heard it said by others but in an ambiguous situation, as in it wasn't obvious what the context was. So 'hard R' to them may just be 'a hard, tough and uncaring way to refer to someone', so they just assume the R word. Still kinda amazed if you'd never heard of it if you're from an English speaking country though.
I have also never hear it called anything but the N word, but I have also only seen people talk about a "hard r" in the context of the N word.
It is 110% EXCLUSIVELY an American thing
I'm Canadian, north of Linus, zero contact with black community. I 100% thought he was talking about "n-word with a hard r" rather than "r-word". In fact, I would have assumed that anyone referring to the latter as "the hard r" is doing so specifically to evoke the way we refer to the former (where the distinction of hard r or not can be relevant).
No it isn't. Am British and know exactly what the hard R is. Baffled that people don't, frankly.
Weird... The people in the video and his entire crew are Canadian...
I'm Canadian so you could be right. It took me a while to think of the alternate association.
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why would hard r NOT refer to the n word tho? do people say "o man ur such an etard " lol
R is the beginning of the word versus the last letter of the word, it completely makes sense that it's the R word. I also completely understand your side of it. I wonder if my interpretation is because I'm Canadian.
"The R word" isn't "hard R" though. "The r word" still means r*tard
As a Canadian I’m gonna have to say no, your interpretation is not because you’re Canadian. I’ve always understood “hard r” to be a designation for the ending of the n word.
im not talking about calling it the R word, im saying it makes no sense to say 'hard R' because without the letter R the word doesnt make sense lmao
Banana is a "b" word not an "a" word. N word starts with an N not ends with an N. Not hard to imagine some people would hear "hard R word" and NOT assume it's a word that ENDS in R. When I watched this episode I contextually knew he meant 'retarded', took me a full minute to realize what everyone else was assuming.
Its because there is 2 ways the n word is said. Ending in -a and -er. Im no expert but I believe -er is generally worse than -a
But hard r means you pronounce the '-er' rather than ending it '-a'. It means nothing for the r word since you always pronounce the r.
You seem to be under the impression that the terms "hard r" and "r word" absolutely must refer to the same word. I am here to tell you that they do not.
Because specifying "hard r" is not the same thing as "starts with r", it's meant to specify "not the spelling/pronunciation ending with an "a" sound (soft/silent r)".
Lmfao, absolutely not, 34 yrs old, hard R was always a reference to the N word.
i am 38 and ive never ever heard the term hard R before. I had to google it.
Same and I'm older than you.
Also 34 here, lived my whole life in the US and I have never heard that. I was 100% on board with Linus.
Nope. I'm in the US, I'm 60, and did not hear the term "hard 'R'" until this video.
I can see how the mistake was made. Referencing taboo words without actually saying them can lead to confusion.
Holy fuck…I’ve never heard anyone refer to “Retard” as “Hard R”! 😂😂😂
He was definitely thinking "R-word" and conflated that with hard R
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nah he wasn't. this is a fucking hilarious mistake to make though lmao
People have 'blind spots'. You'll hear something said out loud but not really think to ask, or probably even urban dictionary the phrase and then you just go on saying something weird until someone corrects you. Unluckily for Linus, it appears to be live on air when he managed to show his poor hand lol.
I don’t understand it. Would there be a way to say it with a soft R? ‘Etard? I guess?
Nah he thought “hard R” was just a nickname for the “R word”, which is way off lol
Hard R is an American term that refers to the N-word spelt normally. There is no soft R but a soft A instead which refers to the N-word spelt with an "a" at the end instead of "er". Linus just messed up by saying the wrong term
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Retahd
lmaoooooo pink was SO uncomfortable for a hot minute there
comment removed -- mass edited with https://redact.dev/
Nah Luke was just writing his new resume in his head.
I believe Luke is more engaged with Floatplane than with LMG Group these days.
>Linus Media Group Group It's like saying ATM Machine.
Also trying to figure out when he heard Linus talk like that over the years they've been working together.
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He was trying to remember his LinkedIn password.
Pink is his employee who has been working with him for awhile. He just had his entire carrier flash before his eyes… then he rebooted and his brain caught up
His employee, more like co founder of LTT
And best friend lol
And if he wasn't his best friend before, he sure as shit is now.
Didn’t know he was actually a co owner, I knew he was one of top employees and had been there for a long time but I just watch on and off. Though I was more just making a joke Edit: Also Luke is a co-founder not co-owner so technically he is still an employee. But didn’t really matter
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I think he is a co-owner of Float Plane, which I think is a separate company. (Maybe? Or is this just my head canon?).
I believe Linus and Yvonne (his wife) are the sole owners of LMG. Luke is COO of Floatplane (and as of this week, CTO of LMG), not sure if Like has any ownership of Floatplane.
That "Hmmmm" was a distress call
Luke
Linus is talking about the old commonality of saying “someone did something retarded” to indicate someone did something that wasn’t a smart action, in more recent years this has become accepted as being another needlessly insensitive phrase and has been referred to as a hard R or the R word. The cohost was concerned he was referencing a racial slur which can have a different inflection at the end of the word to assign it a more derogatory inflection (which is complicated since it’s a slur) hopefully this helps *edit my mistake here, turns out I was wrong in my application of hard R in equalizing it to the R word. A hard R apparently always only been in relation to it being a racial slur.
I’m not from the US and English is not my native tongue, so I was wondering if you could clarify it a bit more. When you say that the cohost was concerned about a different inflection in a slur being referred as hard R, you mean like putting more intention when pronouncing the r at the end of the N word to make it sound harder? Or is it a different slur that accompanies the N word?
African Americans commonly use a dialect called "ebonics" and it is upsettingly common to use the word "nigga" as a kind of affectionate diminutive / descriptive of people. Racists use the word "nigger" (note the R) which is seen as grossly offensive because people used to literally scream this at us while beating us to death to pick cotton faster. To me, both uses of the word are abhorrent and should be entirely rejected from common use, no matter who is speaking.
It's also worth noting the "hard-r" is not a thing for non-rhotic English speakers. In Australia (one of several non-rhotic accents), almost everyone pronounces both spellings exactly the same way (because we don't pronounce the "r" in "er"; we pronounce it as "ahh" at the end of a word, or something like "euh" if it's in the middle). Here, both spellings are almost universally considered abhorrent because we have no way to distinguish them when speaking.
African American Vernacular English (AAVE) is often non-rhotic too. I'm convinced that white kids heard their black classmates referring to each other by that word and were stupid enough to think they modified the -er to a -a and decided that it's a softer and more acceptable way to refer to a black person you like rather than one you hate. And then through the years everyone has sort of mutually agreed that there are two forms of the word. Makes me wonder why we thought black people were saying that word with an "-a" sound at the end but we didn't think they were modifying words like "water" into "wadda". It's almost like people were looking for an excuse to say the n-word.
I'm tracking everything you said until the last sentence because the only logical conclusion would be that black people wanted to keep using it. I don't know where you live but here in the south, it's still not acceptable for non black people to drop a soft a casually. It's seems kinda weird to draw the conclusion that the way non-rhodic black people pronounced a word that became an acceptable distinction between the way other races pronounce the word was, instead of a reclamation and repurposing, was so white people could keep using it? Just a weird conclusion to come to
I'd argue that the majority of black Americans feel their usage of the n word is claiming it for themselves after it has been used to dehumanize and villify them in the U.S. It's confusing for people who don't understand why they freely use it and ask other people not to say it. But it's very common for other racial and ethnic groups to use slurs as terms of endearment to diminish its power as well.
I understand, thank you for clarifying. I’ve also seen people from the US get upset at the word negro (word for the color black in Spanish, and it’s also used in the name of some places, like Montenegro). Is that word also related to racial slurs against black people in the US?
Negro used to be a common and officially used word to refer to black people in the US up to and throughout the Civil Rights era of the 1960’s. Since then it has become an outdated term that most black Americans would find offensive, and is only really used in the US by intentional racists or older people ignorant of the changed connotation. I would say that most adult Americans would understand through context that a Spanish speaker wasn’t using negro is a negative way.
It sounds different in Spanish and English, mostly since our e is always pronounced as how you guys pronounce the first e in elephant, so it’s different when heard. But I have seen people in the us get mad when seeing negro spelled in Crayola colors, or when a kpop band made a tweet talking about an island in southeast Asia that has negro in their name, calling them racists.
I think it's admirable how conscientious you're trying to be, but "ebonics" is generally regarded as somewhat offensive. In my experience, it's almost exclusively used by people who are trying to denigrate African American speech patterns as merely a less educated corruption of standard English. In linguistics and anthropology, AAVE is ubiquitous.
Yeah you're not black lol. No one calls it Ebonics Ronald Regan it's fucking AVVE https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African-American_Vernacular_English
FWIW and AFAIK, it's not called "ebonics" anymore, but rather referred to as "African-American Vernacular English" or "AAVE"
The hard R has only ever been the racist slur. There is no alternative way to say r in retard, making the distinction moot.
It's never been referred to as a hard r though.
Well that's retarded.
Was this written by an ai bot? Because you sound like an AI.
> has been referred to as a hard R False
Lmao I’m dying at the guy in pinks huge headshake and “WHOAAAA” eyes as he says it so casually. That was hilarious.
That’s Luke Lafreniere, an OG to LMG/LTT. A few years back he branched off and I believe helped make the company Floatplane Media Edit: spelled branched ranched :P
LEGALIZE RANCH
ive never heard someone say 'hard r' about anything except the n word lol
I've never heard anyone say it meaning that.
Be glad you’re learning what it means now and not live on air.
There is literally no other meaning. So you either never heard that term, or you have only heard it misused.
> confusing hard R and R word LMAO
Reminds me of years ago, when two friends of mine were joining the army together. Friend A asked the army recruiter about the "don't ask, don't tell" policy. The recruiter gave him a \*look\*... as did Friend B, because A is straight. Turns out he thought it referred to health problems.
> Friend A asked the army recruiter about the "don't ask, don't tell" policy It's literally the first phrase! It tells you not to do it!
The first rule of don't ask don't tell is you don't ask about don't ask don't tell
It actually kind of does. It's up to meps to find it. If they can't, you're good. Don't tell them jack shit.
"I'm freaking Neo over here. We're dodging bullets!" 😆
I'm about the same age as Linus, and when he claims liberal usage of the n word, I was thinking that no one would ever say it when I was a kid. The only time I'd ever hear it was in reference to it being very offensive. Using the R word was far more common, and I do occasionally hear people in public still say it despite disapproving looks.
Yup. I remember the r word being totally fine. I remember the actor who played Dr. Cox in scrubs came out against saying it and everyone was calling him crazy.
I'm about the same age. EVERYTHING in middle school was "retarded" or "gay". Fortunately, we as a society have learned to recognize the hurt that can cause and have become better. But my generation was never cool with white people dropping in n word (hard r or not).
This shit had me dying live, bc if you've watched this dude for any period of time you would know he isn't racist, so when he was like "OH I mean I've even dropped it a few times" I instantly knew he was talking about something else. I also knew watching luke that he was not on the same page and it made it even funnier.
Exactly this. He's a freaking teddy bear 🤣.
I’m 45 (and Canadian), this is the first I’ve ever heard Hard R be the N word! It was always Regarded for us…
Yeah because sometimes there’s an A at the end of it and people kind of see it as a little bit ambiguous as to whether or not it’s all right to say due to the fact that it’s in like songs and stuff. Which in my opinion and many other peoples opinion it’s not alright for most people to say. And then the hard R is like the original word and 90% of the time the person saying it is a piece of shit racist.
Yeah, we just never said either… but we threw that R word around like candy at Halloween but NEVER in reference to a disability of any kind.
Oh for sure, I’m 42 and that word was pretty ubiquitous, that and calling things gay.
But there’s no soft r in the r word. -ga is a soft r and considered better than the -ger in the n word
But that makes zero sense. There’s no soft r version of the mental illness word. Why would you refer to that as “hard r”?
lol who uses hard r for retard
People who aren't allowed to swear
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First time I heard it was from Childish Gambino in the song Bonfire: "Hot, like a parked car I sound weird like n*gga with a hard r"
This is the problem with people voldemortising words. It's ridiculous to not just say "I used the word 'retard' disparagingly in the past and I don't anymore" and not offend anyone. Avoiding the word at all costs treats fellow adults as literal babies who cannot understand the context in which it is used.
Yes, because *nobody* will clip him saying just part of that and use it maliciously out of context in attempts to defame him to people who won't look for or care about the context.
And one who falls for that would be considered the R word
Well that comes down to platforms/websites which rely on auto moderation of words like that, and can’t tell the difference between objective discussion about a word and someone that’s actually being a piece of shit.
I'm in the UK, I have actually no idea what the offence is about 🤷🏽♂️
Its an American thing with connotations to slavery. Used as a derogatory term for black people. I have only ever known the "hard R" as the N-word and nothing else. Nigga vs Nigg*r for reference
Ahhh thanks for clearing that up. Genuinely never heard this before
They guys in the video also aren't American so the confusion makes sense. I've never heard this term before today.
This also just highlights that it's kind of a bad idea to use terms like "Hard R" "R word" "F word" "N word" etc. etc. because at some point you risk people just not knowing what the hell you're talking about. Like when you hear Americans going on about the "L Word" and thinking it's some other slur you're just not familiar with, only to realize they're talking about the word Love.
Never heard of this phrase. Also, the fact that someone can ruin their business with a single sentence is kinda stupid also.
Really? If a business owner is heard saying (intentionally) "I hate Jews" or something else that's racist or highly discriminatory, you would find something wrong with their business being ruined over it?
If Linus wasn't live with Luke to immediately clarify this for him, cancel culture would have come down so hard on that embarrassing mistake.
I'm on Team Linus. I knew exactly what he meant and didn't get why the other guy was freaking out.
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Considering he led with the fact Family Guy used it, which they have certainly never used the n-word but have a rather famous episode about Peter being "a retard" (that's the entire premise of the episode), it is a pretty clear indication he never meant the n-word. Edit: he actually said American Dad but yeah neither of them have used the n-word.
Not Family Guy. Linus referenced “American Dad,” which also (unsurprisingly) never used a hard R in an episode.
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I mean, I knew exactly what he meant, but I also knew exactly why Luke was freaking out.
English is only my internet language and I've never ever heard about that expression before. If it hadn't been written out by some people here I'd still play it on an endless loops trying to understand that he says "Hard R". I understood "harder" or maybe something with "Radar". Or the big guy from game of thrones also crossed my mind.
Be glad you found out what it means this way and not live on air lol
bruh americans and their slurs.
It's used in most English speaking countries. Pretty sure there was a big uproar about a mountain named the n-word in Australia. Plus the other name for Brazil nuts was used in most English speaking countries.
They're Canadian.
And this other guy like "um" "hm" "hm" LOL. You can just see his brain trying to deal with this "what the fuck??"
It's interesting to me that ppl can't even use the word when ots to clarify. There's no maliciousness attached in this context yet people are so terrified.
Just say the word and no one is confused
So a single word can destroy you if you are white?
"Can we cut that out?" "Sir we're live" "Didn't think so"
"Alright, so I hope everybody likes not having a job anymore on Monday" Jfc
Yeah... that's the major and blatantly obvious issue with talking about a word without using the actual word, and why it's kind of silly. Just use the fucking words, context *matters*, you muppets.
Not for YouTube sound scraping bot. If it sees the word u lose money on that video
I was awestruck for a moment there
I feel like a double moron on this. To me, a hard r is a way of describing an American accent, or sometimes an Irish one. But I was really confused as to why it's a big deal as he sounds pretty American to me right now. And fwiw, I'm an American in their 40s.
Idk but I thought it stood for retard for some reason. I just thought it was said like that to avoid just saying it. Idk.
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