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I keep hearing from Zimbabwe people living in UK the expression: "I am going to bath" instead of I'm having a bath or taking a bath, or even I'm going to bathe. Are these foreigners using the word bath incorrectly? To me going to bath is travelling the M3 to the west country.

ruakh
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Ferran
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    Month’s end is a correct expression. – Arm the good guys in America Oct 12 '17 at 00:58
  • I have retracted my close vote, and edited the title of the question, as Nigel J's answer suggests that there may be more going on in this particular case than can be explained by the linked post. – herisson Oct 12 '17 at 01:09
  • It's likely that many people pronounce "bathe" as "bath". – Hot Licks Oct 12 '17 at 02:23
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    There are at least 2 varieties of Zimbabwean English, the fossilised one spoken by Independence era ex-pats and the one currently spoken in Zim. Apparently they are becoming quite divergent, but both have influences from Afrikaans, Shona and Ndebele meaning the language is distinct from British or American English. So I’d guess as you’ve observed it in several people that it is standard/accepted in their variety of English. – Spagirl Oct 12 '17 at 07:20
  • Spagirl seems right on the button there.

    Bathe/bath specifically I haven't noticed, even when sharing my house with Zimbabweans for months;

    However, Zim English does use such terms as pick instead of pick up when speaking of giving someone a ride in a car; soup instead of sauce to garnish a meal, and any number of similar differences, such that Bathe/bath sounds wholly expectable.

     – Robbie Goodwin Oct 13 '17 at 20:58

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This must be quite a colloquial thing. In over sixty years I have never heard anyone express 'I'm going to bath'; it is always 'I'm going for a bath' or 'I'm having a bath' or 'I'm off to the bath.'

Perhaps it is, as the OP mentions, because 'I'm going to bath,' sounds as though one is off on the motorway to the city of Bath in Somerset.

Nor have I ever heard anyone say, 'I'm going to bathe.'

But people often say, 'I'm going to bath the baby.'

The verb 'bathe' is technically correct, but is colloquially used for bathing in the sea, not for having a bath at home.

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So, I think for us colloquial speakers, 'bath' is a noun or a transitive verb and 'bathe' is the intransitive verb.

Which ends up as "I'm going to take a bath, in the bath, and then give the baby a bath."

As if I were taking a second bath and putting it in the first bath; and then giving, as a present, one of those items to the perplexed (and still unwashed) infant.

Nigel J
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  • @sumelic I've never heard it used, in Scotland or in England. As the OP says,' I'm going to bath' means I'm going the city of Bath, in Somerset. – Nigel J Oct 12 '17 at 00:55
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    Nonetheless, it is frequent enough to be listed in dictionaries like Collins: "Don't feel you have to bath your child every day." "The three children all bath in the same bath water." – herisson Oct 12 '17 at 00:56
  • Interesting edit; it makes sense that "I'm going to bath" might not be the most common expression, even for people who use "bath" as a verb. – herisson Oct 12 '17 at 01:03
  • Nigel, it sounds odd to most people. But this question has been asked before and has quite satisfying answers. I think you'll find it very interesting. https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/206047/to-bath-vs-to-bathe – KumaAra Oct 12 '17 at 01:03
  • @KumaAra: The interesting thing is that Nigel is from the UK, so I was surprised that "I am going to bath" sounded odd to him, but I think it may be a nuance of usage that exists even for people who use "bath" as a verb in some contexts. It seems like some people use "bath" more often as a transitive verb than as an intransitive verb, and even for UK speakers who don't use "bathe" as an intransitive verb very often (to refer to washing oneself in a bath), there are other expressions that can be used like "take a bath" – herisson Oct 12 '17 at 01:04