English for Today by Ganiu Abisoye Bamgbose (Dr GAB)
BATH or BATHE?
Bath, as a noun, means a tub of water where you wash yourself or the act of washing your body in a bath: I need a hot bath now.
Note that in British English, bath is also used as a verb: Please bath the baby. Bath is pronounced like path with just the /p, b/ difference.
Bathe, is, usually, a verb and it means to wash with water. It is the preferred spelling in American English: Have you bathed the baby?
Note that in British English, bathe could also be used as a noun to mean an act of swimming in the sea, a river etc: Let’s go for a bathe. Pronounce the a in bathe like that in pale and the ‘the’ like the one in than.
Task
- We need to change that __.
- While British _ and Americans _ still confuse me.
- Have you had the experience of a __ in the river?
- He has __ twice today.
GAB
