a polite way to say (to pee)

Question

What is the polite way to say, if you friends asked you what are you doing at that moment?

(a) If you are in the restroom to pee / to shit.

What do the students say to the teacher if the teacher want to know what they do.

(eg, to pee , to let gas? / to shit?)

BarbaraPA · Accepted Answer

This topic has been discussed over and over again in this forum.

In the US and in the UK, we are not specific about what we need to do in the bathroom/restroom/washroom/loo/toilet. It would be extremely unusual for someone to ask what you were doing, and a teacher would not ask a student what he or she needed to do. It would be shocking, really.

There are dozens of euphamisms, from the childish to the vulgar, from "visit the loo" to "spend a penny" to "see a man about a horse" to "pee." And that's leaving out all of the vulgar ones.

Is it really so common in other cultures to come back from the toilet and discuss what happened? We get so many questions about it!

Sesquipedalian101 · Answer

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ...... Culture shock!...

In Asia, at least from the part of the world that I come from, it is never considered impolite or unusual for someone to tell "why" he had been to the toilet or even for someone to ask "why" he went. Well, personally, as a little boy, I used to find it a little curious for anyone to reveal any such information or for anyone to even think of asking such things.

I guess I have got acclimatized to all these.

Well, to add on, you would be in for a greater shock if you ever decide one day to move to or work in a country like mine, where it is not considered rude to ask someone (even one whom he could have just met) personal questions such as "How many children do you have?", "How much are they paying you?"

Well, one of those things about culture!

Anonymous · Answer

Vincent TeoWhat is the polite way to say, if you friends asked you what are you doing at that moment?(a) If you are in the restroom to pee / to ***.What do the students say to the teacher if the teacher want to know what they do. (eg, to pee , to let gas? / to ***?)

The simplest and polite ways to say it, in the UK, would be to say that you are either going to toilet or that you need to go to toilet.

Fivejedjon · Answer

Anonymousyou are either going to toilet or that you need to go to toilet.

Don't you mean "... to the toilet"?

Anonymous · Answer

fivejedjon Anonymousyou are either going to toilet or that you need to go to toilet.Don't you mean "... to the toilet"?

That's also a common way of saying it. Including the word the, is not really necessary because, people don't normally need to specify which toilet in particular.

Fivejedjon · Answer

AnonymousThat's also a common way of saying it. Including the word the, is not really necessary because, people don't normally need to specify which toilet in particular.

https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=go+to+toilet%2Cgo+to+the+toilet%2C&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=18&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cgo%20to%20toilet%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Cgo%20to%20the%20toilet%3B%2Cc0 suggests it's a very uncommon way of saying it. We use the definite article with toilet/lavatory/washroom/restroom/loo/etc, just as we do with pub/bank/cinema/etc. No specific place is particularly intended, though with the first set of words we usually mean the nearest one.

Anonymous · Answer

With or without the, it doesn't matter. Both wordings can be used.

Fivejedjon · Answer

AnonymousWith or without the, it doesn't matter. Both wordings can be used.

It is better for learners to learn the common and natural way, with the article, than the very rare way, without the article.

a polite way to say (to pee)

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