Learn English: 9 basic phrases for CLEANING UP

http://www.engvid.com/ Learn some basic words and phrases you can use to talk about cleaning up in English. Do you only have to tidy up a little or is your place a pigsty? In this vocabulary lesson, I'll teach you nine easy phrases you can use to talk about cleaning up. It's time for a little spring cleaning and don't worry -- it won't be a chore! Take the quiz here: http://www.engvid.com/9-basic-phrases-for-cleaning-up/

TRANSCRIPT

[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.