"when" or "that"

[JACEK1]

Hello everybody!

That is the right moment someone should ease himself.

I would like to find out which word is more appropriate: "when" or "that"?

I think "That is the right moment when someone should ease himself" is 100 % correct.

As far as "That is the right moment that someone should ease himself", is it acceptable to you?

Thank you.

 

[Boris Tatarenko]

I'm not a teacher nor a native speaker.

#2 doesn't make sense for me. Are you sure you want to say "easy himself"? As far as I know it means "relieve nature" .

 

[bhaisahab]

What do you mean by "to ease himself"?

 

[bhaisahab]

"Relieve nature" is meaningless, Boris.

 

[Boris Tatarenko]

I knew it, it was a veiled expression of defecate.

 

[bhaisahab]

I knew it, it was a veiled expression of defecate.

I've never heard it before.

 

[JACEK1]

It means to be forced to make a sudden and unexpected visit to the toilet.

 

[emsr2d2]

I'm not sure about the "forced" nature of it. When I worked at an international airport, we would frequently hear from people from other cultures "I need to ease myself" and, in some cases, they would "ease themselves" on the floor of the public arrivals hall. One person who did this had actually never seen a toilet.

As far as your actual question goes, I don't find "That is the right moment that/when someone should ease himself" at all natural. What do you mean by "the right moment"?

 

[JACEK1]

It means either to defecate or urinate.

 

[JACEK1]

A little more context.

Dr. Richard Mwondha, a urologist at Mulago Hospital, says it is not good to withhold urine to a point where you cannot control the urge to pass it.

“A child’s bladder has the capacity to hold an equivalent of three glasses of water and eight for an adult. When it starts filling, the nerves send a signal to the brain, which makes one get the urge to ease oneself. That is the right moment someone should ease himself.

 

[emsr2d2]

OK, so it is saying that at the point that your brain receives the signal saying "You need to urinate/defecate", you should do it. You shouldn't wait.

 

[Barb_D]

Perhaps one could wait long enough to get to a toilet, given a few other threads we've seen on this topic recently.

 

[MikeNewYork]

In American English we use the idiom "relieve oneself" rather than "ease oneself".

 

[Rover_KE]

That's what we say in British English, too.

 

[emsr2d2]

I had never heard it until I worked at the airport and it was specific to certain inbound flights from Africa.