#41- 18 Words for Laundry & Dry Cleaning

Hi there! Welcome to episode #41 of The Real Life English with Gabby Podcast!

In this episode, you'll be learning 18 popular slang words, phrasal verbs, and idioms all about doing laundry and getting your clothes dry cleaned. Laundry is one of those tasks that most people have to do on a weekly and monthly basis, so learning how to discuss it in English is very important. For this reason, I wanted to focus on how to help you discuss this topic in English. After listening to this episode, you’ll be able to speak about cleaning your clothes with CONFIDENCE and be one step closer to speaking English like a native speaker.

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Transcript

[00:00:00] On this episode of the Real Life English with Gabby podcast, I'll be teaching you 18 words for laundry and dry cleaning. You'll be learning new vocabulary like load up, run through, worn out, BO, dingy, and more. Let's get to it.

Hey there, welcome to the Real Life English with Gabby podcast. I'm your host, Gabby, your fun and friendly English teacher from the one and only New York City. My goal is to teach you phrasal verbs, idioms, and slang that will help you speak English confidently and understand real American conversations.

Are you ready to improve your English skills? Let's jump right in. Let's go.

Hey, hey, hey, greetings from New York City! Thanks so much for tuning in to this episode. I hope that in your part of the world, [00:01:00] things are going better than they're going here in the USA. I'm sure you know what I'm talking about.

Things are pretty chaotic here, so I decided to do a very calm and easy topic that you can listen to without getting stressed out about all of the news that's coming from the United States. Which is why I chose a topic that you need every week, every month of your life—laundry and dry cleaning.

Basically, anything that will help you learn how to talk about cleaning your clothes.

Here in the U.S.A., most people have washers and dryers in their homes. So, for this reason, it's easy for most Americans to do their own laundry. However, in many big cities, like New York City, for example, where space is limited, barely anyone has washing machines and dryers in their own [00:02:00] apartments.

If you get lucky, your building has a laundry room that you can use to wash your clothes. Thankfully, the building that I currently live in has one of these. But for most apartments here, you have to go to what we call a laundromat. This is a place where you can wash and dry your clothes, usually for pretty cheap.

For about five bucks or less, you can wash and dry one load. A washing machine typically costs about $2.25 for one load, one cycle, and drying usually costs about $0.25 for 8 or 9 minutes. So, you can get your clothes done for pretty cheap.

Some Americans, who have a little bit more money to burn, send out their laundry to be done by laundromats. The laundromat will come and pick [00:03:00] up your clothes, wash them, and then deliver them right back to you. Or, you can bring your laundry to a laundromat and they will do it for you. This is definitely not as cheap as doing it yourself.

And then, for people who have very high-level jobs that require formal wear, they have to send out their clothes to be done at the cleaners. We say cleaners or dry cleaners. These are the places that clean formal wear, like suits and dresses—things that can't go in a washing machine or a dryer. These dry cleaning places also tailor your clothes, meaning that they can make fit adjustments. They can make the clothes fit you better by adjusting the size.

Sometimes here, laundromats have dry cleaning services. But most of the time, it's a separate business that offers dry cleaning or tailoring services. People whose [00:04:00] job it is to do this professionally are called dry cleaners or tailors.

I'm sure that in your part of the world, things work a little bit differently than they do here when it comes to cleaning your clothes. I've experienced it firsthand many times while traveling. For example, when I went to Morocco, it was really cool to see a large outdoor center where women gathered to wash all of their clothes by hand. It was a place specifically created for laundry, and there were water basins made of stone. It was really cool. It was like a natural spring, and they had made all of these stone areas so you could wash and scrub your clothes. It was such a refreshing thing to do. It was a very cool experience. Then, when I was in Spain, I noticed that they had washing machines in every apartment but [00:05:00] no dryers. But it was so cool because there was a room on the roof of most apartments just to air-dry your clothes.

I would love to have this in the USA. In the USA, it used to be common for people to have clothing lines in their backyard, for people to hang their clothes to air-dry, but now most people just use dryers to dry their clothes. Using dryers to dry your clothes is not as ideal. It uses a lot of electricity, and the heat is so hot it often damages your clothing.

Many of my students have difficulties with American dryers because they shrink your clothes due to how hot they are. So, if you ever find yourself doing laundry in the USA, beware of the dryers so that your clothes don't shrink or get smaller. If you're listening to this on a platform that enables [00:06:00] comments, like Spotify, I'd love to hear in the comments how laundry works in your countries. If you're not listening on Spotify or a platform that allows comments, shoot me an email or a DM. I'd love to hear from you.

Before we continue, I'd just like to remind you that there is a free study guide waiting for you. In this study guide, there are extra practice activities, definitions, examples, and more. Click the link in the episode description and it'll direct you to the folder that has all of the study guides from every episode.

Once you have that, you'll be able to go in whenever you'd like and get any study guide you'd like. Once you have the link, you'll have unlimited access to that folder. And every week, you can get your new guide.

Also, if you'd like to increase your vocabulary even more, check out my book, Real American Idioms. In this book, you'll get over 200 popular [00:07:00] American idioms and expressions, along with practice activities in every chapter.

This book will challenge you, and not just feed you definitions, but make your brain work and provide you with ways to remember the vocabulary and empower you to use it in your everyday life. There's a special price for podcast listeners when you use the code PODCAST. The link is in the episode description, so go click the link and check it out.

All right. So now let me share with you the 18 new vocabulary words and expressions that you're going to be learning in this episode: load up, sort out, toss in, hang up, turn inside out, run through or go through, dry out, freshen up, stained, treated or pre-treated, torn, worn out, faded, wrinkled, B.O., tumble dry low, delicates, dingy.

Now, I'm going to read you a story that uses all of the vocabulary in a real-world context. [00:08:00]

So, listen as I read and see how much you can understand. I created this story specifically so that you can hear how you would actually be using these words in real life. After I read the story, I'll review all the new vocabulary with you.

Also in this episode, I'll be giving you some phrases to say that'll teach you how to talk about getting your clothes cleaned at the dry cleaners. This'll give you exactly what to say so that you don't have to guess. And you don't have to worry about whether what you're saying is correct.

Let's get to the story.

[00:09:00] Carlos had a big job interview coming up in two days, so he needed his best suit, his best shirts, and his best clothes in order to look perfect. He realized that his suit needed dry cleaning and all of his other clothes needed to be washed. So, he grabbed his laundry basket and headed to the laundromat.

As he loaded up the washing machine, he made sure to sort out his lights and darks before adding detergent. Then, he tossed in his favorite dress shirt and hit the start button.

After the wash cycle finished, Carlos pulled out his clothes and gasped. His white shirt was stained with blue ink. He had forgotten to check his pockets and realized that there was a pen inside. He quickly pre-treated the stain with a special spray and decided to run it [00:10:00] through another wash cycle. While waiting, he hung up his clean pants to dry and checked his other clothes. His lucky socks were torn. His black T-shirt looked faded, and his dress pants were wrinkled.

"This is a disaster," he groaned.

When the wash cycle was done, he checked the washing machine again, but the ink stain was still there.

He noticed that there were a lot of delicates still in his laundry basket that he couldn't wash himself, so he decided to go to the dry cleaners so that they could clean his delicates and his stained shirt. When he arrived, he asked the worker desperately, "Can you please freshen up my suit and get this stain out of my shirt?

I also need these delicates cleaned."

The worker inspected the shirt. "We'll do our best," she said. "We'll dry out your suit and tumble dry low your dress shirt to [00:11:00] avoid shrinking. But next time, turn your clothes inside out before washing them in order to protect the fabric."

Carlos nodded and felt a bit embarrassed. "Also, could you please press my suit? I don't want to show up looking dingy or worn out at my interview."

The next day, Carlos picked up his clothes. His suit looked brand new, and the stain was gone. But as he put on his shirt, he sniffed the underarms and cringed.

"Oh no, I forgot to wash my undershirt. I hope I don't smell like B.O. during the interview."

Despite all the laundry drama, Carlos walked into his interview feeling confident. He might not be great at washing clothes, but at least he looked sharp.

The end.

Now that you've heard all of the words used in real-life context, let's talk about what these words mean and get some [00:12:00] more examples of how you can use them in your everyday life.

First up, you heard the word load up. Carlos loaded up the machine. This is a phrasal verb, and this means to fill a machine or container with something. Usually, it's filling something almost to its full capacity.

For example, "I need to load up the dishwasher with all of these dirty dishes."

Now, we've talked about this in previous episodes as to why, in American English, we add up after a verb. Essentially, load and load up can often be used the same, so I can say, "I need to load the washing machine," but up gives more of an emphasis. Also, there's a little bit more of an indication that I'm going to fill something with a large amount of [00:13:00] things.

The next phrasal verb is toss in. Now, the verb toss means to gently throw something or quickly throw something. So if you're at a park, you can tell someone, "Hey, can you toss me the ball?" This is just to throw something lightly or quickly.

However, toss in, toss out, toss up, toss down—they're used a little bit differently.

Toss in is very specific. This means to quickly throw something into a container or into a place.

For example, "Just toss in your socks with the rest of the laundry."

Next up, we have the phrasal verb hang up. Hang up is a really common phrasal verb, and it actually has multiple meanings. So I'm sure you've heard hang up [00:14:00] before. But in this context, hang up means to place something on a hanger, a hook, or a line in order to dry it or store it.

For example, when you enter your home, you take off your coat and you hang it up—you're putting it on a hanger or a hook in order to store it until you need it again. But in the context of laundry, we're hanging up something to dry. We're placing it on a hanger or on a hook, but oftentimes, for laundry, we're hanging it on a bar or a clothing line to dry it.

After washing your clothes, make sure to hang them up so they don't wrinkle.

Next, we have another phrasal verb, sort out. Sort out is a really common phrasal verb. It has different meanings, but in the [00:15:00] context of laundry and cleaning your clothes, it means to organize things into different categories.

For example, "Hey, can you sort out these papers? Can you put them in different piles or different categories?"

"I need to sort out the laundry before I wash it."

Some people might put all their clothes together and shove them into a machine. But most people sort out their clothes—they separate lights and darks, kids' clothes, underwear and socks, towels and sheets. So, sorting out clothing means organizing them into different piles, sections, or categories.

For example, "I need to sort out the laundry by colors [00:16:00] before washing."

Next up, we have the expression turn something inside out.

First of all, inside out means when you have something on the wrong way, where the inside is on the outside. Sometimes my three-year-old will try to dress himself, and he'll put his clothes on inside out—so you see the tag sticking out of the clothes.

To turn something inside out, we use the verb turn—this means to actually flip it. Many types of clothes instruct you to turn them inside out to protect them, especially if it's a graphic T-shirt that has a design.

For example, "Turn your T-shirts inside out before washing in order to keep the colors bright."

Next [00:17:00] up, we have the phrasal verb run through or go through. This means to experience or complete some kind of process.

In the story, Carlos realized that his shirt had a stain from ink, so he decided to run it through one more time.

For example, "This dress needs to go through another wash cycle. It still has stains."

Next up, we have the expression dry out. This means to let something lose all of its moisture and become dry.

For example, "These jeans need to dry out before I can fold them."

Sometimes when making food, all the moisture needs to leave the food—like sun-dried tomatoes. You can say, "That needs to dry out a little bit more." This often happens naturally in the sun or from the air.

Next, we have another phrasal verb, freshen up. This means to make something smell or feel cleaner.

For example, imagine you just got off a 12-hour flight and feel gross. You might say, "You know what, I'm gonna go freshen up."

When it comes to laundry, you might want to freshen up your clothes by adding detergent, fabric spray, or dryer sheets that make them smell better.

For example, "Let's freshen up the kitchen."

"Let's freshen up these bedsheets with some fabric spray."

Next up, we have the word "stained." Now, this can be a verb or a noun. So, a stain is a mark or discoloration of some sort on clothing, like, "Oh, you have a stain on your shirt." But "stained" or [00:20:00] "to stain" something is the process of putting the mark or discoloration there. So, if I say something is stained (past tense), this means that it has a mark or discoloration that is difficult to remove. For example, "I'm so sad that I stained my favorite white shirt with coffee."

Next up, we have the terms "treated" and "pretreated." So, if you have a stain on your clothes and you want to spray it with stain remover before you put it into the washing machine, we call this pre-treating or treating a stain. This just means that a stain is worked on or cleaned before washing in order to increase the chances of stain removal. So, I have a special natural spray remover. It's made [00:21:00] of plants and fruit. And for any type of stain, I spray it, scrub it, pre-treat it, and then when it goes into the washing machine, it comes out perfectly clean.

And with my kids, it's necessary. And actually, I'm kind of a messy eater, so I stain a lot of my clothes, I'm ashamed to say. So, treating and pre-treating is my life. An example sentence would be, "I pretreated the grease stain with stain remover spray before tossing it into the wash."

Next up, we have the word "torn." Now, "torn" is an adjective that comes from the verb "to tear." Torn means ripped or damaged with a hole. For example, "These jeans are torn at the knees, but that's the popular style now." We use this word a lot. So, you could say, "There's a tear [00:22:00] in your shirt," but we typically say, "Oh, your shirt is torn."

Next up, we have a phrasal verb, and this is "worn out." "Worn out" means overused and damaged from too much wear. So, imagine that you have a shirt that you've had for years. It's your favorite shirt. It's your lucky shirt. But now it's worn out, meaning it doesn't look new. Maybe the colors have faded. They're not as bright.

Maybe sometimes there's even a hole that you try to fix up. So, this refers to older clothing that doesn't look new. For example, "My favorite hoodie is completely worn out, but I just can't throw it away." I typically like to wear clothes until they're too worn out for me to wear because I don't like to waste things.

"Worn out" is a really, really common phrasal verb here. Similarly to "worn out," we have "faded," [00:23:00] but "faded" is more specifically the color. "Worn out" is typically everything about the condition of something. "Faded" is specifically when the color of something is lost over time. So, you bought a shirt that's black. Over time, it can turn a little bit gray if you don't try to protect the colors. For example, "My black jeans have faded to a dark gray after so many washes."

Next up, we have the word "wrinkled." Now, "wrinkled" can be for your skin or for clothes. "Wrinkled" means to have lines or creases from being crumpled or not ironed. I'm assuming that you all know what an iron is. An iron straightens out the wrinkles in your clothing. So, it's like when you're sitting down for a while and then you stand up and your shirt has all of these lines or creases, and it just looks very sloppy. [00:24:00]

So, this is what "wrinkled" is. For example, "My shirt is so wrinkled. I need to iron it before I wear it."

Next up, we have a slang word, "B.O." "B.O." is short for "body odor," which is the smell of sweat on clothing. "B.O." is something that Americans talk about all the time, especially in New York City, where we get really close to people on the subway.

Now, let me just be honest and tell you this. Americans hate B.O. If you do not wear deodorant here, and you smell like sweat, you will have no friends. And I say that not to be funny but to just be honest with you about American society. Americans do not like to smell bad. And, of course, there are exceptions. Maybe we have people who want to be [00:25:00] natural and all that stuff. But the majority of cultures do not like B.O., and I'm sure it's the same for your culture as well. I mean, very few cultures like B.O., but some cultures are more accepting than others in some situations.

For example, if you go to a teenager's locker room in school or in a gym, it's gonna smell. So, you know, for athletes and things like that, it's more tolerated for them to smell because of how much physical activity they're getting. But in general, if you go to work, go to school, get on the subway, and you smell like B.O., people are going to be upset, and no one's going to want to be near you. So, be very careful about your body odors here in the United States.

Here's an example sentence: "This shirt that I wore to the gym smells like B.O. I really need to wash it as soon as possible."

Next up, we have the term "tumble dry low." [00:26:00] Okay, so the next two words are related. We have "tumble dry low," and we have "delicates." "Tumble dry low" is a laundry setting for drying clothes on low heat in the dryer.

The word "delicate" means gentle. It's an adjective. "Her writing is so delicate." "She's delicate." She's gentle. But "delicates" with an "S" is similar. It's fragile or gentle fabric that requires gentle washing. So, there are a lot of clothes that are too fancy, too fragile, too delicate to go in the regular wash cycle. They'll be ruined. We call these "the delicates." For example, "I always wash my delicates separately in a mesh [00:27:00] bag."

"Tumble dry low" is a specific laundry setting for drying clothes that has the lowest heat setting. Sometimes it's like air drying. So, if there's clothing that you don't want to shrink, certain materials have to be dried on "tumble dry low." A lot of people let their jeans dry on "tumble dry low." For example, "The tag of this shirt says 'tumble dry low,' so don't put it on high heat."

And lastly, we have the word "dingy." I know it looks like "dingy," but it's actually "dingy" with a soft "G." "Dingy" is when something looks dull or discolored or dirty. For example, "These white socks have turned dingy over time." Typically, it's something so overused and discolored that even when you wash it, it still looks dirty. It still looks dull, not bright, not clean.

[00:28:00] So, we use this a lot. And we use "dingy," for example—um, maybe you go to a hotel that's kind of cheap, and you say, "Uh, this place is dingy." Like, it just looks dirty, rundown, dull. No matter how much you clean it, it doesn't look clean.

Now that we've talked about the vocabulary, I'm going to quickly give you a few things that you can say when you want to get your clothes cleaned. And there are a few more expressions that I'll explain that come with these sentences.

Firstly, one of the most common things you can say when you bring your clothes to a dry cleaner is, "Can I have these pressed?" or "Can you please press these clothes?" "Press" is like "ironed"—it's just a little bit more formal, and we typically use it for more formal clothing.

Then we also have the lesser formal way to say it: "Can you iron these shirts and make them look sharp for work?"

[00:29:00] "Sharp" means on point, perfect, exactly as they're supposed to be.

Instead of saying "pressed," you can also say "steamed." "I'd like this dress steamed to get rid of the wrinkles." For dresses and delicate materials, we typically say "steamed" because they'll use, like, a steamer or a steam machine on it.

So again, "I'd like this dress steamed to get rid of the wrinkles" or "to get the wrinkles out."

And then, if you have a lot of stains, you can simply just say, "Could you remove the stains on the collar of my shirt?" The collar is the top section that goes around your neck.

Another word for wrinkles is "creases." "I need this suit cleaned and steamed to get the creases out." That's another word for wrinkles.

And then for stains, you could also say, "Could you please remove the coffee stain from the front of my blouse?"

[00:30:00] Typically, it's good to tell them what kind of stain—coffee stain, oil stain, for example.

And then, "I'd like this sweater cleaned and treated for any stains, especially on the sleeves."

And then, if you're sending out your laundry to be done—someone's doing it for you—you would typically say, "I'd like these washed on cold or on hot."

You can say, "Delicate cycle, hot cycle, cold cycle."

And, "I'd like them dried on high." Or if I'm giving them a bag of my kids' clothes, I'd say, "Can you wash these on hot, please, and dry them on high or tumble dry low?"

"Can I have these washed and dried on the cold cycle and tumble dry low?" for example.

So these are just a few of the simple ways that you can describe what you'd like done to your [00:31:00] clothes.

And when you pick your clothes up and they look perfect, or your clothes are done in the wash cycle, you can say, "Wow, these are spotless—completely clean, no stains, no marks."

"These are pristine." This is a very high-level word that means "in perfect condition," kind of like it's new.

And then we have "crisp." This means, like, no wrinkles, neatly pressed—similar to "sharp."

Those are just a few things that I wanted to add.

Well, there you have it! Now you have quite a few ways to talk about laundry and dry cleaning your clothes. Hopefully, this gives you the confidence that you need to speak English.

Well, that's a wrap for today's episode of The Real Life English with Gabby podcast!

Be sure to download today's study guide so that you can learn how to use this vocabulary confidently.

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