Learn English: 9 basic phrases for CLEANING UP

[Sings] What the #*$%! Jesus Christ. This place has been -- E! You trashed the place

again! It's a disaster area! I'm going to get FEMA in here. Damn it. Oh, hi. James from

EngVid. Yeah. A little mess here. E! Excuse me. What the hell. This is my chess set. He's

been having -- oh, Arabic coffee. It's the good stuff. E! You've got my Arabic coffee?

You made a mess of everything. Oh, God. Listen. This place is a mess. I'm very sorry. It's

a pigsty, literally, a pigsty in here. It's totally trashed. I mean, there's no tidying

this up. There's no way you can tidy something like -- E, I'm tired of picking up after you,

man! I'm tired! Guys, we're going to go to the board. This was going to be about spring

cleaning. No. No. It's going to be about clean up after yourself, okay? Let's go to the board.

Jesus Christ.

Hi. Welcome to the EngVid disaster area, area, area. I'm not happy. I might seem to be happy,

but I'm not. I mean, I just came into work to start. I thought I might do a little bit

of spring cleaning, you know? It's getting to be spring. Flowers are coming out and whatnot.

And I walk into this pigsty. Let's get started.

Today's lesson is going to be on cleaning -- something you should do at home regularly.

Okay? E, clean this crap up. "Crap" means "stuff" -- not a nice word to use, but "stuff".

It's actually another word, but you get the idea. Clean this crap up. So we're going to

work on eight different phrases for cleaning your house.

We're going to start off with a negative because right now I'm in a negative mood. Then, we'll

move to a more positive frame of mind, okay? So let's clean up a little bit.

So the first one we're going to start with, okay, is a "pigsty". A "pigsty". Oink! Oink!

Oink! It's where pigs live. If you know anything about pigs, pork, bacon -- Mmm! Delicious!

They don't live in a very nice environment. There's lots of mud. "Mud" is earth and water

mixed together. Okay? It's very dirty. When we say, "Your room is a pigsty", we're saying,

"Your room is messy." Right? Not organized and dirty. You go, "Ew! It's dirty." Okay?

And messy. Everything is everywhere. That's a pigsty. Think of a pig -- oink! Oink -- -or

your local policeman, and that's what you've got. Okay?

"Trashed", I like this word. You can hear lots of noise because I'm really stepping

on things. "Trash", in North America means "garbage". It means "garbage". When somebody

has "trashed" your house, it means they -- like, throwing everything everywhere. Usually, a

house gets "trashed" for two reasons. That's why it's on the negative clean list. No. 1,

"Party man! Woo! Party!" People are drinking. They get drunk. They drop things. They break

things. They kick things. You come home. "My house is trashed! My house is garbage because

people have put everything on the floor like it's garbage." It's terrible.

"Pigsty", by the way, is usually for a room. We usually say a room is a "pigsty". "Trashed"

could be your whole house. Right? The whole house. They trashed my house or my office.

Now, another reason something may be trashed is a break-in. What? If somebody comes into

your house to steal, usually they will throw everything down looking for things. Okay?

So they will trash your house and throw everything everywhere. Now, remember: "Trash" and "pigsty"

are similar, but a little different. "Pigsty", we're talking about dirt. There has to be

dirt everywhere. It's dirty. "Trashed" means disorganized, but seriously disorganized.

Maybe dirty, but mostly things are everywhere. Okay?

So a break-in, which is a criminal comes into your house. Or you can just trash your office

or apartment looking for things. "He trashed it looking." It means you threw everything

everywhere. Okay? So maybe you're searching for something. You might end up trashing your

room or your files.

"Disaster area" -- what's a "disaster"? Let's put it this way. A "disaster area" -- think

of your desk or your office environment, working environment. Okay. We talked about a house,

and we talked about a room. Let's talk about your desk or working environment. When you

say that, we usually say it's "disorganized". Okay? It's "disorganized". Everything is everywhere.

So when something is a "disaster area", think of tornados, earthquakes, tsunamis, snow storms

-- everything gets disorganized, thrown about in a messy way. And that's what we talk about

here. So we talk about your desk is disorganized. Look. What is all this stuff doing here? Right?

You can use it for a house, but then, the house should be, what we say, "pulled down".

You should get rid of the house. It's terrible. But usually, we go from here. A "pigsty" for

a localized room. Your room. Right?

The house gets trashed" -- it means things are thrown all over the place. As I said also

from a break-in, right? Or you could trash things while looking for it. And when we say

"disaster area", usually used in the office. You'll say, "This is a disaster area. Clean

it up." Your boss might say that to you. Right? Or your wife, millions and millions of times

every day." Just joking. Okay. Anyway. Where were we?

Okay. So we're going to go from here, which is negative. People are never happy when they

say -- if you hear these words and they're used in your environment, this is not a happy

situation. Okay?

Now, let's go to neutral. Neutral -- kind of, you know, we're going to step over here.

Blue. "Blue" is usually for sadness, but today, it's better than red. Okay? [Makes farting

sound] E! Damn! That smells. We need to air out the room. What that means is there's a

bad smell or maybe the room hasn't been used in a while. So you let fresh air in. If somebody,

[makes farting sound] you know -- E! Air out the room, brother! It means you have to let

new air in. So let the air -- bad air out. Let good air in. Or if you have a room that

you haven't used in a long time and you have clothes there and it's a little stuffy, a

little hot. Air it out. Let air out meaning let the bad air out. Okay?

"Clean out" -- this is an interesting one. Because "clean" -- you know "clean" -- make

better -- out. What that means is -- when you "clean out" something, it means to take

everything out of it. But we really mean to clean out all of the bad things. Get rid of

things. Throw it in the garbage. Because you can organize things once, twice, three times.

But sometimes, you just need to throw it in the garbage. You know what I mean? So we're

going to clean out the room. Excuse me. We're going to clean out the room. You see what

I'm saying! It's got to go. Okay? So when we "clean out", it means "empty". You clean

out your closets. Maybe you have too many old blankets, too many old towels, too many

old cans of soup. Clean it out, and throw them away. You don't want them anymore. All

right? "Clean out".

"Chores". "Chore" -- a "chore" is a job that you have to do. So when you have "chores",

you have jobs. But your chores are usually -- we say household in nature. I have one

chore -- washing the dishes. Washing the clothes. Sweeping the floor. If you're crying, I am,

too. All right? Making dinner can be a chore. Usually, when we say "chore", it's not a job

you want to do. Okay? If you enjoy making dinner, then, it's not a chore. You go, "What?

You just told me cooking is a chore." Nope. Some people like to cook. I like to cook.

I don't think of it as a chore. It's a joy. But if you have work you have to do in your

house and you don't like doing it, then it's called a "chore". Okay? Cool. Because you

don't get paid for it, and it must be done. Usually, we tell children they have chores

to do. "When you get home, do your chores. Take out the garbage. Sweep the floor. Pick

up your clothes." Okay?

And now, last one -- you'll like this one. For the neutral one, "pick up after somebody".

When you're "picking up after somebody" -- "s/b" means "somebody" here. Sorry. "Else's". You're

usually cleaning up after somebody else. What that means is Mr. E takes this and drops it

and then walks away. Then you have to pick it up. And that's what we mean by "pick up

after somebody". Literally, they drop it. They walk away. You have to clean it. Right?

Washing the dishes. Picking up their clothes. These are forms of "picking up after somebody".

Right? Doing somebody else's chores. "I don't want to pick up after you. Your clothes, your

socks, your papers, your books." All right?

Now, finally, the piece de resistance. All right. This is a happy, smiley face. "Spring

cleaning". Why? Because, well, to be honest, when I came here, I wanted to do a bit of

spring cleaning, and I was really happy. Because usually, spring cleaning, it's seasonal. "Seasonal"

-- it happens once a year. The sun a coming out after a long, cold winter. You want to

air out your rooms, right? Let fresh air in. Let the sun in. And you take things out. [Sings

Smurfs theme song] Smurfs! You clean up the place, okay? You clean up because it's happy.

You like the new season coming of growth and living. So spring cleaning is always a good

thing. It makes people happy, believe it or not. Even though we're talking about cleaning,

we're talking about sunshine and flowers and rainbows. You get the point. Okay? So people

like a little spring cleaning.

And the last one, "tidy up". When you're "tidying up", I know it's cleaning, but it's different.

"Tidying up" means there's not much work to do. Move a paper here. Move a book there,

you know, close your computer. It's not so bad. If you have to tidy up, it's not a disaster

area. Okay? The government's not coming to clean your room. Right? Nor are you picking

up after someone else usually. It means, "I'm going to organize my things to make it a little

neater or nicer for other people to look at."

Now, E, are you going to do this pigsty? Because I've got other lessons to do. My friends,

I'm sure after this lesson, you'll not be in the red. Right? No pigsties, no trashing

rooms, no disaster areas. If you have done this or caused this mess, you need to do some

chores and pick up after yourself, okay? Air out the room a little bit, because after you've

trashed it, it smells like, well, cigarettes and beer, E. Right? Clean out your closets

and whatnot.

Now, in Canada right now, it's springtime. I'm enjoying the sun. So I've got to get going.

I'm stepping out. I hope you enjoyed this lesson. And I'd like you to go to www.engvid.com,

"eng" as in "English", "vid" as in "video". All right? Clean out that other old English

stuff that wasn't working for you. You know? Time to spruce up, some spring cleaning. Get

some new stuff. Every week, we have it for you. All right? Don't forget to click "like"

and "subscribe". Have a good one. Damn you, E. Trash this place one more time, I swear

I'm getting me another worm. Jesus.