Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[stevenukd]

Dear Teachers,

1. What's the difference between "rug" and "carpet"?

2. "I'll make the bed" means "I'll prepare the pillow and blanket to sleep", right? and "I'll tidy up the bed" means "I'll rearrange the pillow and blanket" when I get up, right?

Thanks a lot to Teachers,

Stevenukd

[redset]

1. They can mean the same thing, but a carpet is generally understood to cover the entire floor from wall to wall, cover the stairs etc. A rug is usually a smaller piece of fabric that only covers part of the floor, and it can usually be moved around. Carpet can also be a verb, meaning to cover with a carpet or something like a carpet (like if snow falls and covers everything).

2. Usually making the bed means airing the sheets/blanket and the pillows for a minute, then putting them all back in place so the bed is made ready to sleep in. Tidying up the bed sounds more like smoothing out the blanket, ensuring the pillows are in the right place and so on - making it look neat. Depending on how lazy someone is, this could be what they do when they 'make the bed'!

[Anuradha Chepur]

in American books and comics, I've also come across 'do the bed'.

[iitimone7]

steven - just to confuse things a little more, there is a phrase that is used often in USA...

If you make your bed, you must lay in it.

it means that if you get yourself into a situation, no one can or is willing to help you out of it, so you have to resolve the situation by yourself.