get the laundry back?

[sky753]

Hello Everyone,

I would like to know here under such circumstances, which verb should be used in standard spoken English?

The laundry was hung out to dry in the open air by you in the morning. At the moment, it is going to rain, or it blows heavily, or it is getting dark... and you are talking with your friends in the sitting room and it suddenly occurs to you that the laundry is still outside. What should you say?

Can we say "Excuse me, I have to get the laundry back" ? If not proper, what is the most common and standard one?


Thanks and Regards

Sky

 

[Route21]

As an NES but not a teacher:

I would say "Excuse me for a moment, I need to get the laundry in".

Regards
R21

 

[Rover_KE]

'Excuse me. I have to bring the washing in.'

Rover

 

[riquecohen]

'Excuse me. I have to bring the washing in.'

Rover

We wouldn't call the laundry "washing" in AmE. It would be natural to say "I have to get the laundry."

 

[Route21]

Updating my previous comment :

On second thoughts, I would probably use the term "washing" if done at home (in the washing machine) and "laundry" if the washing were done by others, in which case it would include both drying and, where appropriate, ironing (pressing).

That having been said, a "laundry basket" would probably be used for holding the "washing" before & after it went in the washing machine.
How's that for logic! ;-)

Regards
R21

 

[Gillnetter]

We wouldn't call the laundry "washing" in AmE. It would be natural to say "I have to get the laundry."

This depends on where you are from. Having lived on the west coast of the US most of my life, I am used to hearing "washing", though the room, or area, where this function is done is called the laundry room. My mother always used "washing". I can't remember any of the older women ever using the word "laundry". When a suit or a nice dress had to be cleaned, it was taken to the dry cleaners.

 

[Route21]

" .... though the room, or area, where this function is done is called the laundry room. When a suit or a nice dress had to be cleaned, it was taken to the dry cleaners."

Yes. My last UK house had a room off the kitchen that we called the "laundry room" - it had a washer and a tumble dryer. However, as a kid, we had an outbuilding that had previously been used for washing, that we called the "wash-house"

Regards
R21

 

[emsr2d2]

My dirty clothes go in the "washing basket" though what I bought was called a "laundry basket". My aunt has a separate room with the washing machine and tumble drier in - it's called the utility room.

 

[5jj]

I remember the laundry van coming down our street once (twice?) a week to collect the laundry. We lived in a not particularly well-off part of town, and many people sent their larger items in need of washing, such as sheets and table cloths, to the laundry, so it can't have been that expensive. Indeed, like many students in the early 1960s, I took my dirty washing to the laundry room in college to be collected and taken to be laundered. I suppose the advent of laundrettes (most of these later to disappear as more and more people could afford their own washing machine) killed off the domestic laundry service.

My aunt in Scotland took her washing to the steamie.