English Teacher Melanie: Vocabulary – Do Not Call It a Toilet!
(Photo by missmoon)
In the listening lesson “The Bathroom!”, I talked about renovating the bathroom in my parent’s house.
In North America (Canada and the US) it is impolite to use the word toilet. You can call the actual physical thing a toilet, but if you want to say that you need to use the toilet, you must say something else.
We have all sorts of other polite names for it! You can start by saying:
Where is the _________ ?
I need to use the _________.
I have to go to the __________.
Then, you can choose one of the following words:
bathroom
restroom
washroom
ladies’ room / men’s room
In a public place (restaurant, theatre, hotel) the ladies’ room is often called the ‘powder room.’ In a house, a small bathroom with only a toilet and a sink (without a bath/shower) is also called the ‘powder room.’
In very informal conversation amongst friends, if you’d like to be cute or funny you can say:
(little) girl’s room or (little) boy’s room!
IMPORTANT: You may have learned some other slang words for the toilet, but you must remember that those words are slang and should NOT be used in public or in a professional environment (such as your work), especially with people you don’t know.
