Can I rubber the blackboard?

[ratóncolorao]

Hello,

I would like to know which expressions may be more frequently used when being in class and after having written something on the blackboard, we want to rubber it / clean it / erase it/ wipe it off.....

Are all of them equally used?

Thanks a lot for your help

 

[Rover_KE]

In my experience, clean the blackboard is the predominant collocation.

Rover

 

[ratóncolorao]

In my experience, clean the blackboard is the predominant collocation.

Rover

Are the other expressions also correct ?

Thanks for your help

 

[Verona_82]

Hi.
*not a teacher*
I don't think that you can rubber a board. You can rub something off/ erase something from the board. I've also seen 'rub someting out'.

 

[JMurray]

I would like to know which expressions may be more frequently used when being in class and after having written something on the blackboard, we want to rubber it / clean it / erase it/ wipe it off.....

ratóncolorao.
As Rover says, "clean the blackboard" is the most common term for removing all the writing from the board.
If you only want to remove a section of a text or equation, for example, and leave the rest, then you might "rub it out/off", "wipe it out/off", perhaps "clean it off" or simply "remove it". "Erase it" would be understood but in my experience "erase" is more common when removing something from paper. "Rubber it" is not correct in either case.

not a teacher

 

[Coolfootluke]

I am not a teacher.

In my American grade school, we had slate chalkboards which we wrote on in chalk. We would "erase the blackboard" with an eraser, a block about maybe eight by four inches in size made up of thick strips of dense felt.

 

[riquecohen]

I am not a teacher.

In my American grade school, we had slate chalkboards which we wrote on in chalk. We would "erase the blackboard" with an eraser, a block about maybe eight by four inches in size made up of thick strips of dense felt.

That was my experience as well. It seems that blackboards have given way to whiteboards that are written on in felt-tip pens which we still "erase." AmE does not use the noun "rubber" for an eraser, though I believe that this is the BrE term for a pencil eraser. "Rubber" in AmE refers to a durable, elastic substance from which tires and other useful products are made. It is also slang for a condom.

 

[Barb_D]

I also vote for "erase the board."

Where I work, if someone has used one of the white boards and they haven't yet come in to copy down the information, you'll see a note "Please don't erase!" on it.