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  • Hi, I'm Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.comLet's talk about bathroom vocabulary

  • A great way to remember vocabulary, I know that's  something that's difficult for English learners,  

  • is to know the words that are around you, to be  able to talk about your daily routine and to talk  

  • about the items in your house because that's what  you interact with the most. So today I'd like to  

  • help you build your vocabulary, specifically  for words that are in the bathroom, I'm going  

  • to be taking you around this bathroom in my house  and explaining all of the vocabulary words that  

  • exist here. They might not be the same that exists  in your country. So make sure that you let me know  

  • in the comments, if there are any things that  exist in your bathroom, that don't exist in mine.  

  • Before we get started, I want to explain some  words that I use to talk about this room. Look at  

  • these three words: bathroom, restroom, washroom.  I'm from the US and we use only two of these

  • Can you guess which two we use? You just heard  me say one of them. We use bathroom and restroom,  

  • but there is a difference between these a bathroom  is generally in someone's house in some kind of  

  • comfortable location. And a restroom is usually  used for a public situation, maybe a restaurant or  

  • in your office. If you need to go to the bathroomyou might use this because it feels a little bit  

  • more formal. It's a little more indirect. It's a  restroom. You don't know what's happening in the  

  • restroom. I'm just resting. So we use restroom  generally to be a little more polite or to talk  

  • about bathrooms in a more formal setting. As  for the word washroom, in the US I don't think  

  • I've ever heard anyone use this. I could be wrongIt's generally more associated with Canadians. So  

  • in Canada, they often say washroom. But anytime that I say, this is what  

  • they say in Canada, this is what they say in  the UK. Please just understand that I am not  

  • an expert in other types of English. I only know  what I've experienced here in the US. What about  

  • these words: toilet, loo, John, and water closetWell, we do use the word toilet, but we don't use  

  • it to talk about this room. We never say I'm going  to the toilet. It seems gross, or just too direct.  

  • And loo, we never say loo in the US. Also Johnwe don't really say the word John either. But,  

  • this expression water closet. If you saw this  sign, what would you think that means? Let's say  

  • you're at a restaurant and you're looking  for the bathroom and you see this sign on  

  • a door. Would you know that that's the bathroom? You might be able to guess, but water closet or WC  

  • is sometimes on a bathroom door. And it just  means that's the bathroom. Now, sometimes we use  

  • kind of silly words to talk about the bathroomFor example, you might hear lavatory, powder room,  

  • girl's room. And these are always, usually said  with that same tone of voice that I just used  

  • lavatory, this is a very high class way to say  bathroom. So if you are wanting to be a little  

  • bit silly, you might say, "Excuse me, where's  your lavatory." If you're in your friend's house,  

  • you might say, that'd be kind of funny. Or you  might say, "I need to go to the powder room  

  • to freshen up." And I think this is something  that we don't ever say seriously. It's usually  

  • just kind of as a little joke, "Oh, I need  to go and make sure that there's no food  

  • in my teeth. I'm going to go to the powder room." Or you might hear the girl's room. And this is not  

  • just for little girls. This is talking about the  bathroom. If you go to your friend's house and you  

  • need to go to the bathroom, you might ask where's  the girl's room, but only if you're a girl.  

  • We don't really say where's the boys room. I think  that maybe this is just because sometimes women  

  • are more indirect about these types of things.  I'm not sure, but occasionally you will hear these  

  • silly expressions used with the bathroom. Now  we have two more. What about these two words:  

  • porta-potty and porta-John, do you haveporta-potty in your house? I would be very  

  • shocked. These are, a porta-potty or a porta-Johnusually that's what you would see it at a park  

  • or maybe if you go to an outdoor concert or  somewhere that doesn't have an actual bathroom  

  • structure or some kind of restroom outsideSo you might see these types of facilities

  • All right, now that we have cleared all that upWhen you come to the US, you can use bathroom or  

  • restroom, and let's get onto talking about the  items in my bathroom. Let's start off by talking  

  • about this. Here we have the sink. Sometimes it's  called a sink basin, but generally that's kind of  

  • a more formal word. If you're purchasingsink, you might see it called a sink basin.  

  • Also, we have the faucet and the hot water handleor the cold water handle. I only have one, but you  

  • might see some bathrooms that have two, that's  also pretty common. At the bottom, this thing  

  • inside here, down there is the drain. If  you need to fill the sink, you might say,  

  • plug the drain. "I need to push that  down, push the drain down so that I can  

  • plug the drain and fill up the sink with water." And usually, under the sink, you're going to find  

  • some plumbing. Plumbing are the pipes that bring  the water to your faucet, and then away from your  

  • drain. Notice that the B here is silent plumb-ingplumbing. We're going to be talking about these  

  • items a little bit later in this lesson. So  let's move on to the next place in the bathroom

  • All right, here we are by the toiletOne of the features of the bathroom.  

  • In the US we always call this the toilet. We  don't call the room the toilet, as I mentioned.  

  • So on the toilet, we have two lids. This  is in the US, we have the lid and we have  

  • the seat, which can also go up. And this is always  a point of contention in marriages, right? Put  

  • the seat down. And this is what a lot of wives  say, put the seat down, don't leave the seat up

  • I'm curious if you have ever had this  discussion in your house. Then we have the lid  

  • and we have here, this is the toilet bowl. You  can imagine a bowl. And back here is the flusher  

  • or the toilet handle, because we can push this  to flush the toilet. Don't forget to flush the  

  • toilet when you're finished, to flush the toiletOur bathroom, we have installed an extra feature  

  • on our toilet. It is this thing. It is a bidetThis is becoming a little more common in the US  

  • but it is certainly not a well-known feature of  a toilet in the US but because my husband and  

  • I have lived abroad, we know about bidetsso we have a bidet installed in our toilet

  • Also around the toilet, you will see there is  a plunger here for helping the toilet to flow  

  • freely. And we have a toilet brush for cleaning  the toilet, some extra toilet paper, but here, if  

  • you can see on this side, we have our toilet paper  holder and our toilet paper. I have a question for  

  • you. Do you have your toilet paper coming over the  top, or do you have it coming from behind. For me,  

  • I prefer it like this coming from the top, butknow everyone has different opinions about this.  

  • Sometimes on the back of the toilet, you  will see a box of tissues. In the US,  

  • we almost always call these Kleenex. This is  the brand, but it's also just what we generally  

  • call this type of item. Or for us, we havebaby, so we have some baby wipes also on the  

  • back of the toilet. Oh, we have one more thing. This. Do you know what this is? Can you guess?  

  • It is called a squatty potty. I actually  got this online. I got this from somebody  

  • in my city online. Somebody online said,  "I'm selling a squatty potty thing that  

  • you put under your toilet. Does anyone want to  buy it?" And I said, "Me, I want to buy it." So  

  • I met her at a gas station, kind of felt like  a drug deal because she hopped out of her car.  

  • She said, "Are you here for the squatty potty?"  I said, "Yes, I am." And I gave her my 10 bucks  

  • and she gave me the squatty potty and we leftBut this is a kind of a device that helps your  

  • body supposedly to be in a better position so that  your bowels can move freely. So I'm not sure if it  

  • actually works or not, but it's something thatthought was pretty cool. And it was worth the try

  • Next, let's talk about the shower or the tub. Now  in my bathroom here, we have two bathrooms in my  

  • house, in this bathroom. We do not have a tub.  I didn't feel like cleaning our other bathroom.  

  • Otherwise I would show you a tub, but this is what  it looks like. Most bathrooms have a tub. And then  

  • there's also a shower. This bathroom does not have  a shower curtain. A shower curtain is the kind  

  • of cloth that comes over. Instead, we have these  glass shower doors. You can barely see them in the  

  • video, but there are glass doors that block the  water from spraying everywhere in our bathroom

  • In our shower, we have a shower head, and  sometimes the shower head is detachable,  

  • or sometimes it's just fixed on the wallThere's also a shower handle where you can  

  • turn on the hot and cold water. I'm not going to  turn that on right now. So I don't get too wet.  

  • In our shower, we have a squeegee because we  have these glass doors. When they get wet, it's  

  • good to take care of them and not let the water  accumulate on the sides. So we will squeegee them  

  • after taking a shower. And this isverb and a noun. This is a squeegee,  

  • and I need to squeegee the doorsSometimes I squeegee the walls too.  

  • This is my three year old son's favorite activity  to squeegee everything. It is pretty fun,  

  • but to take care of our shower. On this end  of our shower, we have our shower goods.  

  • There is shampoo, conditioner. There's also liquid  soap and bar soap. You might have both in your  

  • shower, or you might have some kind of shower  scrub. This is a liquid that has some kind of  

  • little abrasive pieces in it to scrub your skin. A lot of people will use maybe a loofa or a sponge  

  • or a washcloth to wash their body. We have this  little, it's the thing that we got in Korea,  

  • well, it's not the same one from Korea, but  it's this little rag. You can put your hand  

  • in it and it's a little bit scratchy, and you can  kind of just wash yourself with this. I like it

  • On the wall of our shower. We have tilesThese are the shower tiles. A lot of people  

  • like this look, but they don't like taking care  of it because in between here is called grout. And  

  • you have to occasionally clean the grout in your  shower. Maybe you need to get an old toothbrush  

  • and scrape it. You need to do something. We  have this spray that somebody gave us. It cleans  

  • without having to rinse, spray it on your shower  once a day. I don't do that. I spray it maybe once  

  • a week, if I remember, but you can spray it on the  tiles and maybe it makes it so you don't have to  

  • scrub them. I don't know. We'll see what happensbut there's different products like that too

  • You might notice here in the bottom  of our shower is a little turtle.  

  • It's a secret that all Americans keep a little  toy turtle in the bottom of their shower.  

  • Don't tell our secret. Just kidding. It's my son's  toy. One more thing is you might, when I hear  

  • the term shower stall, a shower stall is  generally in a more public place, like in a gym  

  • or in a dormitory where there's multiple people  showering at the same time. A shower stall  

  • are going to be those individual shower spotsThere might be a shower curtain. There might be  

  • nothing. It might just be open, but this is kind  of a more public thing. So we don't really use the  

  • term shower stall to talk about the bath shower  area in your house. That's more in a public place

  • In our bathroom. We have several types of  towels. One type of towel is simply a bath  

  • towel. And we hang that Bechtel on a hook, or  you might have a towel rack or a towel bar where  

  • you hang your towel. We only have these little  hooks to hang our towels on. You also might use  

  • a washcloth. I mentioned this previously that  you might use this in the shower. For me, I use  

  • this to wash off my face in the morning or in the  evening. And I hang it on this little rack to dry.  

  • Another type of towel you might have is simply  a hand towel. All of these are pretty self  

  • explanatory, bath towel, wash cloth, I guess you  could wash anything with that, and hand towel.  

  • Can you guess what you wash with a hand towelYou use it to dry your hands and it's hanging on  

  • this ring to let it air out in between washings. Next, let's talk about some of the items which  

  • might be in your bathroom. On our counter, we  have a comb. This is not a brush. I have some hair  

  • ties, my glasses, some deodorant, and a contact  lens case. You might just say also a contact case.  

  • I have my jewelry. There is an outlet for  plugging things in. On the other side,  

  • we have a soap dispenser here. Then we have our  toothbrush holder. Inside that toothbrush holder  

  • is a toothbrush and toothpaste beside it is an  electric toothbrush. There is some floss, some  

  • more deodorant, and underneath here is a glasses  lens, cleaner and another glasses lens cloth

  • A lot of bathrooms in the US we'll have a little  closet or some shelves for linens. If this is  

  • a separate area, or if it is in your closet, we  still call this a linen closet. Linens are sheets,  

  • towels, blankets. Mine is a little bit messy,  a little bit disorganized, but it's okay.  

  • So here, these are where I keep my linens. On the  other side of that linen closet is another shelf  

  • where we keep some bandaids, extra shampoo, these  types of things. And we could call this a medicine  

  • cabinet, but it's not necessarily a cabinetYou're going to see that in just a moment.  

  • Instead, we'll still say that this is in the  closet and these are some extra bathroom items

  • Some other items that you might have  in your bathroom is some contact  

  • solution. This goes with my contact lenses that  I wear occasionally, some contact lens solution.  

  • You might also have some Q-tips. I don't really  use these, but for some reason, we have them.  

  • Instead of Q-tips, you might have cotton balls  that look like this or cotton rounds. Sometimes  

  • people use these to take off makeup or for other  things, I guess, but you might have other kinds of