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  • Hi, guys. Welcome to EngVid. I just want to say to you that I have the power.

  • Anybody who watched He-Man will remember this. And if not, oh, well. I've got a lesson for you today, and it's on cleaning.

  • This, my friend, is a vacuum cleaner. Look at it. Elegant lines.

  • [Spits] A little dirty, but we'll clean that up in a second or two when we start the video.

  • This is on a basic lesson for cleaning. There's another video you should check out.

  • It gives more phrases you can use with cleaning. Right? You will like that one, too.

  • But anyway, let's get moving, right?

  • Hey, there we are, over here. Mr. E. Oh, no. He has spilled something. "Spill" -- what is "spilling"?

  • A "spill" is when you have, you know, a liquid, and you drop it on the floor, and it goes everywhere.

  • Sometimes, you can spill things like rice, sugar, or salt

  • because they're uncountable and they go everywhere like a liquid. "He has spilled his tea."

  • The cleaner isn't happy. But I don't think he's using the right tool for this job. Do you?

  • Do you know what this is called? Do you know what he should use? By the end of this lesson,

  • you're going to know that and a few handy phrases to show you are a native English speaker,

  • yeah?

  • All right. So what's happening in the picture? My friend is cleaning up the spill.

  • But I think he's using the wrong tool. Booyah! "Wipe." The first thing we want to talk about is "wipe."

  • What is "to wipe"? Well, when you "wipe" something, you take a paper or a rag -- you know cloth.

  • Or -- cloth, rag, paper. These are the things we use to wipe.

  • It's a soft movement where you just kind of do this motion or this to clean something. Okay?

  • Now, we wipe tables, and we wipe walls to clean them. Right? So when something's not serious,

  • you can wipe it. It will go away easily. Right? Unlike my last girlfriend.

  • Anyway.

  • "Wash," "wash," what is "washing"? Well, you should wash your hands, right, to get them clean.

  • But we also need to wash other things. One of the things we wash is

  • after you eat your food, you have your knife and your fork, right, and a plate. You put them in water.

  • All right? See our little water here? This is a sink. That's where you put them, by the way.

  • Did you know they're called "sink"? This is called a "sink."

  • You put your dishes in the sink, and you wash them. Okay?

  • So we've got our sink. We also wash our clothes. You're clean, right?

  • I'm sure you don't wear the same clothes all the time. You take them off. You put them in the machine.

  • We call that a "washing machine." Okay? So "wash" -- you "wash" dishes; you "wash" your clothes.

  • And that's what we've got here. Another word for "clothes" by the way, boys and girls, "laundry."

  • A lot of times, we don't say, "I'm washing my clothes." In fact,

  • we mostly say,"I'm doing my laundry," but we'll come back to that. Okay?

  • So you've got "laundry" to wash.

  • Now, "scrubbing" -- "scrub." "Scrub" -- I'm missing something here. Oops. Pardon me.

  • You scrub, and it's hard. Remember I said when you use a cloth, you use it for soft?

  • "Scrubbing" is when you want to go really, really hard on something because it's hard to clean.

  • Now, what do we scrub? We scrub floors. Okay? You have dirt on the floor. You have to get down there and scrub it.

  • You scrub your sink because remember, you've been washing things. You need to scrub to get the dirt out.

  • It won't come out with a wipe. Okay? There's a lot of dirt there.

  • Please, oh, please, tell me you scrub your toilet. Don't wipe your toilet,

  • okay? You know what you use it for, so you need to scrub that thing clean. Okay? Or don't invite me to your house.

  • Some of you have, but I noticed you only wipe your toilets.

  • I'm not coming. Change that attitude -- change your behavior, I'll be there. Okay?

  • And walls. Walls get dirty. People throw things; food goes on the wall. Especially if you have babies,

  • it goes up on the wall. You need to scrub it because it goes into the paint. Okay?

  • So we've got -- the verb is to "scrub," and we have -- what do you scrub? Floors, sinks,

  • toilets, and walls. And usually, we use a -- and this is the word you want to use -- a "brush."

  • It's a similar to what you do to brush your teeth.

  • It's a brush you put in your hands, and you scrub, okay?

  • So we've got "scrub," "wash," "wipe." What else can you do in your house? Sweep.

  • Now, sometimes, people have wood floors or hard floors with no carpet. And we sweep the floor,

  • okay? I don't have a broom. I'm sorry. I had a vacuum cleaner. Who knew? The art department

  • brought in a vacuum -- no broom. But a broom. You see people doing this, right? Okay?

  • The thing they're using is a "broom." That's what Mr. E was using here, a broom.

  • But I don't think a broom is a good thing for a spill. Do you? A broom moves things. A spill is liquid, remember?

  • So I think he's using the wrong tool. We're going to have to figure this out.

  • But with a broom, if paper or you have -- yeah. Sugar, dirt, you can clean it up.

  • But water, it's not good for. So you use a broom to sweep. "Sweep" is the verb we use when we use brooms.

  • And we sweep floors. Not walls, people; just the floor.

  • "Vacuum." Remember? Okay. "Vacuum." "Vacuum" is for carpets and rugs.

  • Not -- you don't always have wood on the floor, okay? You have material or cloth. Right?

  • Maybe it looks like this on the floor. You need a vacuum to suck up the dirt. It "vacuums." You "vacuum."

  • When you say, "I'm going to vacuum my house," I know you have carpets or rugs.

  • A "carpet" is usually from wall to wall. The whole floor has it on. A "rug" is usually a small area.

  • This is a "rug" because it's a small area, while a carpet would be from wall to wall.

  • Okay? So if you don't know what you have in your house, if you go to one side of the house or room,

  • there's carpet -- you go to the other side, it's still there on all the walls, you have carpet.

  • If you're standing on a small space in a big room, it's a rug. All right?

  • Cool. So you need a vacuum cleaner to vacuum, all right?

  • What's the last one we're going to do? This is what this guy should be using: a mop.

  • When we say "mop up a mess" or "mop something up," you need this. It's got strings on it, and you need a bucket.

  • Okay? So you put it in there; you take it; and you go over the water.

  • So he should use a "mop," really, not a broom, to clean up a spill. He would mop it up, squeeze, push it,

  • and put the water into the bucket. And then, you take the bucket and empty it in your sink.

  • Now, you know why you have to scrub the sink. Pretty cool, huh?

  • So these are six things we want to talk about for general cleaning of the house.

  • "Mopping" is for wet things, for liquids. "Vacuum" is for carpets and rugs. "Brooms" are for floors, normal floors.

  • You brush -- oh, sorry. You "scrub" hard surfaces, things that are really, really dirty. You use a "brush."

  • You wash in the sink your dishes and your clothes in a washing machine.

  • And you wipe most things many times, right? In the day, you'll wipe things all the time.

  • Just clean it a little bit. You like that? Cool. I'm going to disappear for a second

  • because I'm going to give you three handy phrases you're going to like.

  • It's the way we, in English, save time saying is what we do for jobs. Ready?

  • Hey. Oh, I was just taking up -- hold on. Remember I told you we're going to do three phrases that we use constantly?

  • Well, it's -- we call it "shorthand." "Shorthand" means to say many things by saying just a little bit,

  • okay? In this case, in North America and in Britain and other places,

  • we say some things to get the message across quickly.

  • I might say to you, "I'm doing the laundry." And you go, "What do you mean 'doing the laundry'?"

  • Well, it means I'm washing -- remember we talked about the washing machine?

  • I put it in the washing machine. Then I put it in the dryer. Some people hang their clothes outside

  • if it's nice weather, you know, so the sun can dry it. And then, after I do that,

  • I fold them. I fold the clothes. And when I'm finished folding the clothes, I put them away.

  • Now, instead of saying -- "What are you doing?" -- "well, I'm washing the clothes; I'm drying my clothes;

  • I'm folding my clothes; I'm putting them away," I say, "I'm doing the laundry."

  • Cool? That's one shorthand. So you can tell your friends if they call,

  • "Hey! Do you want to go to the store?" "Sorry, dude. I've got to do the laundry."

  • They'll know it's a long job, two hours, and then, no time.

  • How about the next one, "do the dishes." What do you mean "do the dishes"?

  • Are you going to make them? You have a factory where you make dishes and give to people?

  • No. It's along the same idea. We talk about -- remember "washing"? I said "washing," "wash"? Same lesson for before, right?

  • But now, we're using it with phrases that we use in Canada.

  • So if you say, "Man, I've got to stay home tonight. I've got to do the laundry,

  • and I've got to do the dishes; or I'm doing the laundry, and I'm doing the dishes,"

  • what we're saying is if we're doing the dishes, I'm washing the dishes. I have to rinse them.

  • That means put them in just water. When I wash, I put them with soap to clean them.

  • To "rinse" is to get rid of the soap and the dirt. Then, I have to dry them.

  • I take that paper we talked about or a cloth, and I dry them. Gosh, this is a lot of work. And then, I put them away.

  • If you have a dishwasher, you're very lucky because your parents are nice, and they're making life easy.

  • We had the army in our house. The washer, the dryer, the putter-away.

  • And I was the tallest, so I had to dry and put them away. It wasn't fun. Lucky guys. Okay.

  • And if you don't have it, no dishwasher, you know what it's like. All right?

  • Now, final one is "take out the trash." Remember I came back with the trash? I was about the take it out.

  • What does that mean? Well, I'm going to take the bag out, first off, right?

  • This is a big job. It's not easy, you know. I've got to take the bag out. Then, I've got to tie it. Okay?

  • I've got to tie it. Then, I've got to -- here's the part they don't tell you.

  • When you take out the trash, it's not just tying one bag.

  • You go around your house, and you look for all the of the garbage, and you put it all in the bag.

  • That's why when someone says, "Take out the trash" and they go "five seconds,"

  • I'm like, "I'll call you in twenty minutes." I have to go upstairs, downstairs, grab it, put it away, tie it up.

  • Then, I take it outside. You know where that is. Ten miles away. Walk, walk, walk, smelly

  • trash or garbage. Canada says "garbage," and America usually "trash." Either one's okay.

  • Then, you take it outside. Then, you come back to your house, and you replace the bag.

  • That's right. You pick this back up; you put a new bag in; and you put a new bag everywhere.

  • Only then have you "taken out the trash." You thought it was easy, didn't you? No.

  • So when you hear us saying these things, it's the shorthand for saying "my job" or "my chores."

  • "Chores" are home jobs -- "chores." Okay? So you'll see people say, "I've got chores to do,"

  • and they mean "it's jobs in my house that I don't get paid for. I have chores to do.

  • I've got to do the laundry, do the dishes, then take out the trash. I'll be two or three hours."

  • And you go, "Phew! That's a lot of work. I get it." Okay?

  • The only thing I forgot -- before I go -- because there are always some of you people who are really clean, clean freaks;

  • you like your house clean -- you're going to say "dust."

  • What does "dust" mean? Well, "dust" means when you go to your furniture -- you know,

  • your chairs, your tables -- and you take one of these; you take this and go [spraying sound].

  • And you clean that dust, that gray stuff, that stuff that flies in the air, and you clean it off your furniture.

  • It's a lot of fun. I never do it. I've got dust bunnies.

  • I've got dust Godzillas. Okay?

  • Go out and look on the Internet "dust bunny." It means "little ball of dust that grows because you don't dust."

  • All right? So look. I think I've cleaned up. See how I like that? I've cleaned up all the trash.

  • I've helped you understand. Should he be mopping or sweeping?

  • E? "Oh, no, dude. You should be mopping up that mess." And since I've cleaned up your vocabulary for cleaning,

  • I'm going to take off out of here. All right? Because I've got some dishes, and we know,

  • I've got the trash to do and the vacuuming because E is a lazy bastard.

  • All right. See you guys later. Have a good one. I'm working on the railroad.

Hi, guys. Welcome to EngVid. I just want to say to you that I have the power.

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