bath
- bathe
Bath and bathe both have the -ing participle bathing and the past tense and -ed participle bathed. However, these are pronounced differently, depending on which of the two verbs they are associated with. Bathing and bathed are pronounced as follows:
• /^bɑːθɪŋ/ and /bɑːθt/ when they relate to bath
• /^beɪðɪŋ/ and /beɪðd/ when they relate to bathe.
‘bath’
If you bath someone, you wash them in a long rectangular container
The nurse will show you how to bath the baby.
Don't say that people bath themselves. You say that someone has a bath or takes a bath.
I'm going to have a bath.
She took a long hot bath.
Bath is not a verb in American English. Americans use bathe (see the next section).
‘bathe’
American speakers sometimes say that people bathe /beɪð/.
I went back to my apartment to bathe and change.
In both British and American English, if you bathe a cut or wound, you wash it.
He bathed the cuts on her feet.
In formal or old-fashioned British English, when someone bathes, they swim or play in a lake or river or in the sea.
It is dangerous to bathe in the sea here.
‘go swimming’
In modern English, you usually say that someone goes swimming or goes for a swim. American speakers sometimes say that someone takes a swim.
Let's go for a swim.
I went down to the ocean and took a swim.