Baby Room Vocabulary

Baby Room Vocabulary

A changing table is where the mum or dad changes the diapers of the baby and makes him/her clean.

Baby lotion is rubbed on the baby's skin to keep it soft.

Baby powder is a white powder that is rubbed on the baby's skin to keep the baby dry and many times smell nice.

Ointment is a type of medicine put on a baby's bottom to keep him or her from having a rash.

Baby wipes are like toilet paper for adults, but are thicker and wet so that they clean the baby better.

Cotton swabs are small pieces of cotton on both ends of a type of small stick. They are used to help clean the baby.

Tissues are thin sheets of cotton that you use when you sneeze and wipe your nose.

A bib is what a baby wears when it eats so that the baby doesn't get his/her clothes dirty. Babies eat special food called baby food that is normal food mashed to become soft and easy for the baby to eat.

Before babies can eat baby food they drink milk. Milk can come from their mother or from a special formula. The milk that does not come directly from the mother is put in a baby bottle for the baby to suck on.

A nipple is named for the part of the mother's breast from where the baby drinks the milk. It is also the name of the rubber part of the bottle where the baby drinks. It is sometimes also called the teat.

A mobile is a decoration that hangs over the crib. There are different objects hanging down for the baby to see while he is awake in his crib which is the special small bed for a baby. It normally has a type of fence or wall around the four sides so that the baby does not fall out.

A cradle is a small bed for a newly born baby that rocks, it is also sometimes called a cot.

A bouncer is a great toy for a baby. It has a seat for the baby to sit in and hangs from the ceiling so that the baby can bounce up and down.

A walker is a toy on wheels that a baby can hold on to while it is learning how to walk.

A potty is the name for a small portable toilet for a young child to learn how to use the toilet.

A pacifier is a piece of plastic that is placed in the baby's mouth to keep the baby busy sucking on the object. Mums use the pacifier to keep the baby from crying. Another name for a pacifier is a dummy.

A booster seat or a baby seat is a special chair for a baby that is placed on top of a normal chair. It helps them to be taller so that they can reach the table when then eat. For younger babies they have a special chair called ahighchair that has a little table attached to the chair so that the baby can eat and cannot fall out of the chair.

A car seat is a special chair that is placed in a car on top of the normal seat that is made special so that the baby is always safe while riding in the car.

A doll is a special toy for a baby that looks like a person. Often little children carry around their own doll like it is their own baby. Another special type of soft toy is a stuffed animal. It is a soft toy in the shape of an animal. The most famous kind of stuffed animal is the teddy bear.

Other toys for babies include blocks. Blocks are small cubes of wood or plastic. The babies play with the blocks and learn to build different objects by stacking the blocks.

A rattle is a small toy for a baby that has small objects inside of a ball with a handle. The rattle lets the baby shake it and make a noise.

Babies are often in pain when they have new teeth coming in. A teething ring is a special toy that a baby can chew on to help then with the pain of their new teeth.

A toy chest is a box where the parents keep all of the baby's toys.

A baby carrier is a special object that attaches to the dad or mum and allows them to carry the baby without using his or her hands.

A pushchair or stroller is a chair for the baby to sit in that has wheels on the bottom so that the parent can walk and push the baby in the chair at the same time. A pram is similar, but the baby lays down in a bed, rather than sitting up in a chair.

A play pen is a small area with four walls around it so that the baby has a space to play, but cannot get out to the rest of the room. It provides a safe place for the baby to play.

A nightlight is a small light that shines so that it is bright enough that the child can see in the darkness and isn't afraid, but not bright enough to bother the child while he/she sleeps. Some adults who are afraid of the dark still sleep with a nightlight.

There are two main uses for the bathroom. One is to have a shower or bath to clean yourself. The other is to go to the toilet.

When you want to clean yourself you use the shower (where you stand up) or the bathtub (where you sit in a lot of water).

Almost every house has a shower. This is where you clean yourself by standing in a cubicle where water comes out of a shower head which is situated on the wall above your head.

Sometimes the shower is not in a cubicle but combined with a bathtub. When this happens, you usually need ashower curtain so that the water doesn't splash onto the bathroom floor. This shower curtain usually has curtain rings which are then held in position by a curtain rod.

A rubber mat is placed on the floor of the shower so that you don't accidentally slip.

When you are in the shower and you don't want your hair to get wet you put on a shower cap which is a plastic covering for your hair.

To clean the dirt off your body you use soap. You can find this in the soap dish. Some people like to use shower gel which comes in a plastic bottle instead of soap.

You can use a facecloth or flannel to help you remove the soap from your body.

You use shampoo to clean your hair and then conditioner to make it softer and easier to comb.

After you have washed your hair, you can use a hair dryer to dry it. This is an electrical appliance which blow hot air at your hair.

You can dry yourself with a towel which is normally hanging on the towel rail.

Another use for the bathroom is to go the toilet. Remember to use toilet paper to clean your private parts when you have finished.

You finish using the toilet you have to flush it. If whatever is in the toilet doesn't disappear, you might have to use aplunger to help push it down the drain. A toilet brush is used to clean the inside of the toilet.

Women usually hate it when men leave the toilet seat up.

If the toilet smells bad after someone has used it, you might want to use air freshener so that smells nice again.

Remember to wash your hands after going to the toilet. You use the sink to do this. Another way of saying sink iswashbasin or hand basin.

The sink contains a faucet or tap where the cold water and hot water come out. The water then goes into thesink. If there isn't a plug, the water then disappears down the drain. To dry your hands, you can use a hand towel.

Above the hand basin you will normally find a mirror. You use a mirror to see yourself and to help you brush your hair. Sometimes the mirror is actually the door of a medicine cabinet which is a place to keep your medicine. This is sometimes called a medicine chest too.

After every meal you should brush your teeth. You need to put some toothpaste on your toothbrush to clean them properly.

Men often have hair that grows on their face. If there is a lot of hair, it is called a beard. BUT if a man doesn't want a beard he uses a shaver to remove it. The razor is the sharp blade that is used to cut.

You leave all of your dirty clothes in the laundry basket. Sometimes this basket is called a hamper.

When you want to see how much you weigh, you use a scale.

The Bedroom

English Vocabulary

A bedside table, a night table, and a nightstand are all different names for a small table that is next to a bed.

This table normally has a lamp and an alarm clock on it. It is called an alarm clock because the clock makes a loud sound in the morning to wake you up. Sometimes the clock is called a clock radio, because it plays music from the radio instead of making a loud noise.

Also a box of tissues is often set on a nightstand. This way you can blow your nose at night before you go to sleep or other emergencies.

Sometimes people use their bedrooms for other things. They change the furniture depending on the time of day. Adaybed, for example, is a bed at night, but becomes a sofa during the day with large pillows. The name for the large pillows on a sofa is a cushion. A convertible sofa has a mattress underneath that can be pulled out at night to sleep on. Some people also call it a sofa bed. A cot is small bed where babies sleep and is also used to describe a small temporary bed, something that you do not sleep on normally.

The bed is the most important piece of furniture in a bedroom. It has many different parts. The mattress is the large soft part of the bed where you sleep. Below the mattress is the box spring that holds the mattress up and makes the bed comfortable.

The pillow is where you put your head when you sleep. It is smaller than a cushion and is covered with a piece of cloth called a pillowcase. The pillowcase normally matches the sheets on the bed. There are two sheets for every bed. One is a fitted sheet that covers the mattress and has a piece of elastic around the edge. The other sheet is called the flat sheet, because it doesn't have any elastic. The person sleeps between the two sheets. On top of the sheets there are blankets that are thicker to keep you warm. The blanket on the very top is called a bedspread. It is a blanket that is made special for the size of the bed.

A dust ruffle, sometimes called a bed skirt, is a piece of fabric that hangs off the side of the bed, so that you cannot see what is underneath the mattress and box spring.

There are many different sizes for beds. The smallest one is called a twin bed; it is a bed only for one person, also called a single bed. Then there is a queen size bed, where two people can sleep. Bigger than that there is a king size bed.

A canopy bed is a fancy bed with four large posts (one at each corner of the bed) holding a piece of fabric high above the bed.

Kids like to sleep in bunk beds. Often there are two beds, one on top of the other.

A waterbed is when the mattress is filled with water instead of fabric. The bed moves with the person as he sleeps.

A special type of blanket is called a quilt. It is made by sewing many small pieces of cloth together. It was a traditional gift for families to give young couples on their wedding. Many woman would sew together to create a large quilt. It takes many hours of work to make a quilt.

A duvet is a set of two thick sheets sewn together on the ends. You put a type of blanket inside the duvet. This way you can change the look of the bed and change the thickness of the blankets on the bed depending on the season.

An electric blanket keep you extra warm by running electricity through it to create heat. Some people have a hot water bottle which is a container filled with hot water and sealed with a stopper.

A headboard is a large piece of wood or other material that goes above the bed against the wall.

A bureau is a large piece of furniture where people place their clothes that do not go in the closet or wardrobewhich are the same thing through a part of the house. Sometimes there is also a small chest of drawers where people place their clean folded clothes and other small things like socks. Clothes that are not folded go on coat hangers in the closet or wardrobe. Another name for the chest of drawers is a dresser.

There are many different types of floor covering for bedrooms. Carpet is a common type that covers the floor from wall to wall with a soft fabric. Many people however have wood or tile floors and cover only a small part of the floor with small pieces of fabric called rugs.

Curtains hang on the wall near the window. They are large pieces of fabric that are used for decoration. Blinds are smaller, either made of wood or plastic, and are used to block out the light.

Sometimes rather than paint the walls people glue large pieces of paper to the walls with designs on it. This is calledwallpaper.

Many times in the bedroom there is an area for the person to get ready in the morning. This area normally has amirror, so that the person can see how beautiful he or she is. Near the mirror, on top of the dresser the person normally keeps a hairbrush or a comb, to fix their hair. Also on the dresser there is a small box that holds all different types of jewellery that a woman wears. She keeps earrings, necklaces and bracelets in her jewellery box.

Colors - Colours

English Vocabulary

What is the difference betwen Color and Colour?

Both words mean the same thing and its spelling depends on the country where the word is written.

The word Color is used in United States.

The word Colour is used in the rest of the English-speaking countries (England, Australia, NZ etc.)

The names of the more common colours in English appear in the chart below:

What is the difference betwen Gray and Grey?

The same as with the difference between color and colour, it depends on the country.

The word Gray is used in United States.

The word Grey is used in the rest of the English-speaking countries (England, Australia, NZ etc.)

Word order with colours

There are three ways that you can use a colour in a sentence to describe something:

1. To Be + Colour. e.g. My car is blue.

2. Colour + Noun. e.g. The blue car is mine.

3. Colour is the Noun. e.g. Blue is the colour of my car.

Did you know that, because colours give us more information about a person or a thing, they are adjectives in English?

Light - Dark - Bright

You can also talk in shades (or intensity) of colour in English by using such expressions as:

Light is the opposite of Dark.

Bright: a strong colour that is easy to see.

• Helen has dark green eyes.
• His light grey hair made him look very distinguished.
• Her bright pink lipstick doesn't look good.

The words Light, Dark and Bright are placed before the colour.

Colours + ISH

If you are not exactly sure how to describe a colour, we normally use the suffix -ish.

e.g. Greenish (= approximately green but not exactly green)

• The sunset is a beautiful pinkish-purplish colour today.
• His shirt is lightish blue in colour.

Typical Things of each Colour

The following is a list of things typically associated with each colour:

Red: Strawberry, Rose, Fire engine, Blood, Heart

Orange: Pumpkin, Carrot, Basketball

Yellow: Cheese, Sun, Butter, Lemon

Green: Grass, Lettuce, Frog, Leaf, Lizard

Blue: Sky, Ocean, Blueberry, Whale

Black: Bat, Night, Tire (tyre), Fly

White: Paper, Sugar, Milk, Snow, Sheep

Pink: Pig, Tongue, Cotton candy (Candy floss)

Brown: Wood, Cigar, Earth, Acorn, Horse

Grey / Gray: Rock, Lead, Dust, Mouse, Elephant

Purple: Bruise, Grapes

Daily Activities at Home

What are some of the daily activities that you do at home?

I wake up at 7am every morning.
I press the snooze button five times every morning before I turn off the alarm and get up.
I have a cup of coffee and make breakfast. I usually read the newspaper while I have breakfast. My children like to have a shower after they have breakfast but I like to have a shower before I get dressed.
My wife brushes her long hair, and I have short hair so I comb my hair. How do you do your hair in the morning?
It is important to brush your teeth, and some women like to put make-up on. 
After I have finished work, I go home to cook dinner. In my house I usually make dinner. The family eat dinner together at 7:30pm.
After dinner I make sure that my children do their homework, and then I chill out on the sofa and watch television. 
On television I usually watch the News. My wife usually comes to tell me to take the rubbish out, or wash the dishes. 
Our children feed the dog and the cat before they go to bed and I tell them to go to the bathroom too. 
If I am sick I have to take my medication, but then I get into my pyjamas and set the alarm so I wake up in the morning. 
The last things I do is lock the door, turn off the lights, and go to bed.

Daily Activities at Work

What are some daily activities that you do at work?

I go to work at 8.45am every morning.
I usually drive to work.
I always check my emails when I get to work, but I don't always reply to them immediately.
I take a taxi or a train if I have a lunch meeting. I never take the bus because it is too slow. 
When I am at my desk I usually work on the computer, even during morning tea.
At 1pm most days I have lunch.
At 3pm we have afternoon tea, and that is when we usually talk and eat cake. 
When you are in the office you probably have a lot of papers. It is important for you to file your papers, and so that you can find them again you need to organise your files. 
When I work I have to make telephone calls. If an important issue happens I ask my secretary to organise a meeting. 
Once a month I report to my boss, but maybe you have to report to your boss more often. I usually write a document that my boss can read.

Other Daily Activities

What are some other daily activities that you do?

I exercise at least three times a week.
I usually go to the gym before work, but sometimes I go after work.
I meditate every morning so that I feel less stressed during the day.

Weekly Activities

What are some weekly activities that you do?
I go grocery shopping once a week at the local supermarket.
My family does the housework together every Saturday morning.
I usually do the washing on Sunday morning and when the machine is finished I hang the clothes out to dry.
On Sunday morning we go to church, and if there is lots of noise coming from next door, sometimes we fight with the neighbour.
On Saturday night my parents stay at home and I go out with friends.
Even my friends that live at home call their parents each week. 
Every evening, I water the garden. 
I usually pay someone to wash the car, but my partner says I should do it, so sometimes I argue with my partnerabout that. 
If we are angry at the neighbour, we seek vengeance by annoying his dogs.  
I work in an important office, so I have to shine my shoes each day. 
Sometimes we hire a movie, because we don't like to illegally download music and films. I make sure that I synchronise my iPod so I always have new music on it.
To get our shopping, we go to the mall in the car. 
Last week I forgot to recharge my travel card, and I had to argue with a bus driver. I couldn't call the office because I forgot to recharge my cellphone!