restroom

What is the right way to ask directions for a restroom in public esp when you are living in the USA?

I stopped by a near gas station and there were four girls standing. I asked them: "Can I use your restroom?" All of them started laughing out loud...looking at me with funny looks behind my back.

Did I make a silly grammar mistake somewhere in my sentence?

Thanks.

That was too cultured for them. You should have asked "May I take a leak here"

You didn't make a grammar mistake. You don't wanna say something like "Where's the crapper?" or anything like that...

I've had to do some cross country driving, and I'd typically say "Excuse me, where's the restroom?"

"Can I use the restroom?" would "properly" be said "May I use the restroom?" (evidently other languages have this issue to, for example koennen/duerfen in German) but this too would be seen as a little formal for a gas station bathroom...lol

Were the girls you asked working there? If they didn't work at the gas station, it would certainly sound odd to ask to use *their* rest room. ;)

- Kef

>>"Can I use the restroom?" would "properly" be said "May I use the restroom?" (evidently other languages have this issue to, for example koennen/duerfen in German) but this too would be seen as a little formal for a gas station bathroom...lol<<

At least here, most younger people consistently use "can" or "could" except in very formal speech, whereas some middle-aged and older people will really use "may" consistently in such cases.

Just why would you ever need to ask at a gas station to use the bathroom? I'd just use it. I wouldn't want to use a gas station bathroom in the first place however. They don't clean them.

<Just why would you ever need to ask at a gas station to use the bathroom?>
because I am a new person in the usa. I still have to learn many things. Using something with permission is always safer.
I'd like to use one in whatever conidtion it is in instead of doing my pee against the wall. I think all those girls must have laughed at about me being naive and asking a permission for using a gas station bathroom. Anyways, people learn from their experience. And they were working there and were selling something. They probably thought that I had come there for buying soemthing but as soon as I opened my mouth - all of them got into a fit of laughter. I had to laugh as well because I felt like I might have said something amusing to them so they were laughing like mad.
I don't know what was the funny part there?

If you want to know the directions to the restroom, then why not say "Where is the restroom?"

<<because I am a new person in the usa. I still have to learn many things. Using something with permission is always safer.>>

Well here in the US we usually don't ask permission to use the restroom when we are at gas stations, we just go. And if we want to know the directions we say, "Where's the restroom"?

furrykef,

"Were the girls you asked working there? If they didn't work at the gas station, it would certainly sound odd to ask to use *their* rest room. ;) "

Yeah, I'm wondering why no-one else has listened to this point. It seems to be critical. You're going to be laughed at if you go into a store and ask a customer if you can use the store's restroom. I imagine in any culture you would be laughed at for this.

What I usually use in stores is "Where are the restrooms?" or (more specifically) "Where is the men's room?" Women can use "Where is the ladies' room?"

in Canada they use washroom there, which is dated/obsolete in the US...

I rarely hear "washroom" being used here, with the main words in use being "bathroom" and "restroom". One note though is that "bathroom" is the primary word to refer to such in someone's home, like with you, while "restroom" is only used to refer to such in businesses or public places. Also, "bathroom" is not used as much in businesses or public places as in people's homes but it may still be used in such contexts, particularly if one is talking to other people one knows (whereas "restroom" is generally preferred when talking with strangers in such contexts).

I think some people use "washroom" for restroom in schools. I don't use it much myself, but I don't think it's terribly odd; rather, I think it's quaint.

Did I make a silly grammar mistake somewhere in my sentence?-Guest

K. T.'s brutal answer:

I think Furrykef gave the best answer. It was probably because of the use of "your" in this case. If the girls did not work there, they may have laughed for that reason. If, by chance, you have a foreign accent in English combined with "your", then it may have come off as funny or slightly forward. If they thought you were cute and foreign, they also may have laughed because that's how (teenage) girls are.

If you asked someone who worked there, then there is no reason to laugh. "The" restroom is better, though. Your grammar was NOT wrong.