How can I translate the words for the two types of bathrooms found in Russia into English?
I work in real estate, and sometimes I have to translate respective inscriptions from my native Russian into English. I get stuck in some cases where not only linguistic, but cultural differences have an impact. I’d appreciate it if you would help me to sort out one of these issues.
When describing a property, we usually mention about bathrooms. But our conception of bathrooms often differs from yours. :-) For example, we have no need for specifying “2 bathrooms” or “5 bathrooms”, because most of our properties have only one bathroom. But there is another characteristic that Russian property buyers consider important: whether the toilet is separated from bathroom or combined with it. I fail to formulate it correctly in English.
Here are the standard terms that we use:
Совмещённый санузел (sovmeshchonny sanuzel), literally “combined sanitation unit”, means: “The property has one room containing all hygienic facilities, including bathtub, toilet, basin and so on.”
Раздельный санузел (razdelny sanuzel), literally “separated sanitation unit”, means: “The property has two separate rooms, one with a toilet bowl, and another with a bathtub.”
Please help me to understand how to convey these terms in British English reasonably. I apologize if my inquiry seems foolish or is phrased awkwardly.
According to Wikipedia’s entries for Public toilet and Bathroom, the British term for a room containing a bath is a bathroom and the term for a room containing a toilet is a toilet.
If these are accurate, it would make sense to translate:
sovmeshchonny sanuzel ➡ combined bathroom and toilet
razdelny sanuzel ➡ separate bathroom and toilet
In American English, a room with a toilet and sink but no shower/bathtub could be called a
- powder room, or
- 1/2 bathroom
In British English, I have seen it described as a WC (water closet). This is also the case on trains, as the WC is a toilet and sink, without washing facilities.
A room with a shower/bathtub is a bathroom as it is literally a bathing room. I've seen that description “on the Continent” and the UK.
North American English of the more recent variety will refer to the combined toilet, sink, shower/bath as a bathroom. But my older, poorer, rural relatives never used the phrase bathroom unless they were referring to washing. Also, in some older buildings in U.S. cities, in New York for example, there are still apartments that have one room with a toilet and sink only, and an adjacent, but completely separate walled room with only a tub.
In Australian English the phrase "separate shower and toilet" would typically be used to describe the situation where the bath/shower and toilet are in different rooms.
Across Europe, the most cosmopolitan term for a toilet is "WC" (Water Closet). This would work fine for UK English, but is foreign to Americans.
In North American real estate jargon we say "full bathroom" for a bathroom with all facilities, and "half-bathroom" for a toilet and sink only. (North American homes are frequently listed as having "2-1/2 baths".)
Since there is no proper equivalent to the common Eastern European apartment layout, you need the separate words to explain this difference. The shortened "WC" could be useful in print. I would suggest:
- Combined bath & WC (comb. B/WC)
- Separate bath & WC (sep. B/WC)
I've not been looking for property recently, but as a Brit I'd expect the following meanings from various terms:
- Shower room - A smallish room normally containing a toilet, a sink and a shower
- Bathroom - A larger room, containing a toilet, a sink, a bath and typically some form of shower as well (be it over the bath or a separate cubicle). If one or more rooms in a house has an en-suite (see below), then this may be described as a "family bathroom" by estate agents.
- En-suite - A bathroom that is only accessible from a bedroom (Typically advertised as a "bedroom with en-suite"). Contains a toilet and sink, and usually a shower. Various examples of usage of the term can be seen in this advert.
- Wet room - This is a type of bath/shower room that contains a shower that does not have a separate cubicle (ie. the water is sprayed directly onto the floor and it is drained from there). See wikipedia.
- Cloakroom/WC (an abbreviation of "water-closet") - This is just a toilet and a sink, normally as an addition to other toilets within the property. I think you'd tend to use "cloakroom" for a room on the ground-floor of a house, such as in this instance, and "WC" for rooms on other floors. I've also seen (such as in this ad) the variant "Guest WC".
Some advertisements, such as this one, describe a bath or shower room as having a "separate WC", meaning that the bathroom does not have a toilet in the room itself, but in a (typically adjacent) room, which I believe is what you describe as Раздельный санузел.