How to deal with swearing in a three year-old?

[LlamateurDramatics]

DS is nearly four and has recently started a new preschool. Over the past couple of weeks I've heard a couple of words which may or may not have been swear words and I'm not sure how to deal with it. I'm not sure whether he's actually swearing or not as he quite often makes up silly, nonsense words and there's no context to what he's saying but it's a little too close to swearing for comfort! So far we've ignored it completely but if anyone has any suggestions for better ways of dealing with it I'd be grateful!

That's a difficult one. If you think he's experimenting with 'made up' words I think you're right to ignore if he accidentally swears and not draw attention to it.
If he is swearing in context then he needs to know that it is unacceptable. Explain to him that it is not a nice word and that he mustn't say it again. Then if you hear him say it again, discipline him as you would with any other misbehaviour.

I would totally ignore it. Telling him off for it will just make it more exciting for him as he is getting a response.

If he continues to do this after you have ignored it for a week or so then you need to mention to his nursery as the source of it might be there....

Thank you for your replies. DS is highly likely to use it as something to annoy me with if I point out that certain words are naughty, so may carry on with ignoring for now if it happens again unless there's definite context to what he's saying. I'm pretty sure he's not getting it from home as the words sounded like 'wanker' and 'fucker' which are definitely not in common usage by DH or I! Having a word with preschool might be a good idea too, as even if it's made-up words with no meaning I'd hate for them to get any ideas about how we speak to DS!