Learn basic English vocabulary for cleaning your house

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?

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 you 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.