Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[eurocanoe]

1) Why do English speaking people say living room, dining room, bathroom but NOT kitchen room?

2) If a bird is eating seeds from your hand do you say: it is a bird "in or on" your hand?
3) If your hand is cupped holding the seeds is it: "in or on" your hand?

[asterix]

1). It's a convention
2). If the bird is sitting on your hand you say, "It's on my hand."
3). If you are holding seeds in your closed hand you have seed in your hand.

[eurocanoe]

Strange that convention put bathroom as one word but not living room or dining room as one word and had kitchen as no room.

The third statement I posted should be:
If your hand is cupped holding the seeds is THE BIRD "in or on" your hand? I did not mean if the seeds were in or on your hand.

[asterix]

You don't say where the bird is. If the bird is sitting on your hand eating seeds; it's on your hand.
If you are holding the bird so that it can't escape; it is in your hand.

The word lounge is also used to describe a living room, or sitting room.
refectory is the name for a room used for communal meals, especially in a religious or educational setting.

English is a strange language sometimes. It has lots of words of Germanic origin. It has lots of words of Latin origin. It has lots of words of French origin and it happily borrows any word that its citizens think is cool, from any language. You just have to learn them.