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

[rustydog.livejournal.com]

Hee. Half of my job is pointing out and explaining that stuff to learners of English. And they're always pointing out crazy things I haven't noticed before. Idiom, phrasal verbs, it's all kind of nuts! But it's what makes the language *live*.

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

I bet that's really fascinating- trying to explain it all, especially when there aren't rules or reasons!

[rustydog.livejournal.com]

All I can usually do is point it out and explain how it's used. It would take forever to research where it came from or why we do it! Though occasionally I'll find something and share.

I always feel so bad when we talk about phrasal verbs. All I can say is "you have to memorize the usage of each one" because "burn up" and "burn down" mean basically the same thing, and we say "mess up" but there's no "mess down" at all...

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

oh boy.

AS a kid, what I remember most was the confusion over find/found, bind/bound, mind/minded, etc. Bloody language always messing me up!