Help with wording

[donutsweeper]

UK peeps, a question on wording (that I'm too embarrassed about to post over at  dw_britglish .)

For a US character I would say that, after receiving a a life-altering injury, a character is barely capable of going to the bathroom by himself.  Bathroom, in this case, would mean the ability to use the toilet and wash up and whatnot.

Would the UK wording be "use the w.c. (or is it WC) by himself" or simply toilet or lavatory or....?  Help!

Comments

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

*g* I get why you don't want to post that in a public forum...

It really depends how graphic you want to get. In conversation, no one uses WC, ever. The character (depending who it is) might say "can't use the loo" or "can't even take a pee by himself" or you might say "can even go to the toilet by himself" which has a better rhythm. We might say "can't use the bathroom" meaning the same as you mean - use the loo, get showered etc - but we're more likely to be specific. So, "can't take a shower" or "can't get out of the bath" would be more likely.

Just, whatever you do, don't use WC or lavatory unless you're/the character's being sarcastic ;)

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

Just, whatever you do, don't use WC or lavatory unless you're/the character's being sarcastic ;)

I didn't think so, but that's what all the UK/US dictionaries were suggesting. I think I'll say loo then- it seems a bit more encompassing a term- that it could mean using the toilet and washing up or whatever.

Thanks!

[unfeathered]

As a bit of an aside (since the original question's already been answered), I'd consider 'take a shower' to sound very American. I would say 'have a shower'. I also would say 'have a pee' or even just 'pee' rather than 'take a pee'. Interesting. :-)

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

have a pee sounds really weird to me... like it's something you actually can have and hold in your hands or something.

I think my brain might just be a wee bit broken these days. :)

[unfeathered]

Yeah, but on the other hand, if you're taking a pee, where are you taking it to (or from)? *g*

Language is funny. :-)

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

*blinks* okay that's an excellent point as well.

[unfeathered]

*bows* Thank you!

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

of course if we wrote and spoke in a way that left nothing to question it would sound weird and clinical

[unfeathered]

Yep. *g*

To be honest, a lot of the language we use doesn't make a lot of sense when you actually dissect it and try to take it literally. :-)

[sistercarrion.livejournal.com]

Yeah, not WC.

Not lavatory unless you're after a degree of formality. Toilet would be more usual than bathroom in the UK. Loo tends to be informal, light-hearted even.

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

I was pretty sure that WC wasn't used, even if the dictionaries insisted on it. Okay, so toilet seems more the term to use.

SO- would "they'd gotten him to the point where he could manage the simplest of tasks if prompted. Eating. Dressing. Using the toilet. But anything else was beyond his abilities." work?

[sistercarrion.livejournal.com]

Yup, yup. That sounds right to my ears anyway.

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

Excellent, thanks!

[hellenebright.livejournal.com]

Just lose the "gotten". It's terrible English (although fine American I believe).

"They had got him to the point..." but even that sounds a little strange. "They had reached the point where..." just works a little better for me.

Also...because we are much more literal in some things, when I originally read the question, I thought the poor sod had his pecker blown off or some such, and hence couldn't actually pass urine unaided. After reading the thread, I gather that he has had some kind of mental breakdown, and you wanted an expression in English English that would convey this idea, where "couldn't even go to the bathroom" would be used in American english.

I'm not actually sure that a Brit would use lavatorial competence as a measure of mental health...because we use such literal expressions, and even the most unaware patient can pass urine (unless scenario above prevails).

We might say "he's barely toilet trained" but that literally means he's as likely to pee in his pants as anywhere else.

You're scenario, we'd perhaps be more likely to say "they'd coaxed him to about the level of a three year old. He could use a knife and fork. Dress himself if you laid the clothes out. Use the toilet. That kind of thing."

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

I'd already changed it to "they'd managed to get him..."

The story starts with a struggle to get Jack to feed himself and then continues with the fact that although they'd managed to get him to learn the basics (where I just list them- eating, dressing, using the toilet) but nothing else. He's just a shell, capable of existing, but nothing more.

[hellenebright.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I eventually realised that was what you meant (I'm slow, I know). It's my weird psychology or something. Many years ago, I was on an archaeological dig site, to which two American women arrived one morning as new volunteer diggers.

This being 1976, we had progressed beyond the slit trench, and had "The Elsan" - a portable chemical toilet in a small square tent. So when the two ladies announced that they had to "go to the bathroom", it caused much unintentional hilarity.

Given the british propensity for scatology, this has stayed with me, and to this day I always assume that "use the bathroom" is a euphemism only for "pee", hence my bizarre train of thought.


On a different note, hope Jack isn't in that state *too* long....

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

*g* It depends. Broken!Jack is fun to play with.

archaeological dig? Wow! Sounds fascinating

[kensieg.livejournal.com]

what did he do that he's so broken?

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

now, now... that would be telling! :)

(aka I haven't decided yet so have avoided mentioning what happened to make him that way other than alluding to it in broad strokes)

[hellenebright.livejournal.com]

Crickley Hill 1976. At the time it was one of the few continuous occupation sites in Britain - now we know there are a lot of sites that remained in continuous occupation for thousands of years.

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

wow- sounds like a great learning opportunity

[aeron-lanart.livejournal.com]

If it was a bloke and he was describing it himself he would probably use piss (and shit) as in "can't even piss and shit on my own" no polite euphemisms there. Slightly more polite is 'take a leak', again a bloke thing not a woman thing.

While we might never use lavatory, in Liverpool we do say 'going the lav' but that's a girl thing. Then there's the lovely and polite 'powder my nose' and 'visiting the little girls room'.

I have heard so many different ways of people saying they need to empty their bladder! Piddle/Jimmy Riddle is one that makes me laugh no end as on my second placement in my training I was working on a urology ward and happened to look after one James Riddle...

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

We use 'power my nose' and 'little girls/boys room' here too, but it sounds a bit too polite/silly in most contexts

[echo-fangirl.livejournal.com]

Heh heh... I love toilet euphemisms! So fantastically creative. :) I'm not British, and these aren't particularly relevant to this scenario anyway, but you can't go past "See a man about a dog", or "drain the lizard"...

...

...

What? ;)

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

I've never heard of those before. There are a lot of weird ones, aren't there?