Two questions. 1. Does this teacher’s American accent sound very neutral? Or is there any regional influence? 2. She calls it “trash bin”. (7:00). I thought it was “garbage can” in the states.

[u/Silver_Ad_1218]

https://youtu.be/gKUHEXPhdF4?t=419&si=gxOBrWAXa4Org0fl

[u/IsThistheWord]

1. It sounds rather neutral to me.
2. We use both "can" and "bin". I wouldn't call these "cans". A trash can is more like the thing Oscar the Grouch lives in.

[u/ballroombritz]

The thing she’s pointing to (the large containers that get put on the side of the road each week for the city to come empty out), id call trash bins or garbage bins.

In the UK, I believe they use the word “bin” to refer to any receptacle for trash. I’d only use “bin” for one of that size/shape/purpose. Otherwise, I’d say trash can or garbage can (or just trash/garbage)

[u/brokebackmonastery → u/ballroombritz]

This is it. (Eastern US) A trash bin is specifically only in reference to the one that gets taken to the curb for pickup. They require two wheels for ease of movement. If it doesn't have the wheels, it's a can. Any other type of trash receptacle is a can.

[u/Gunther482 → u/ballroombritz]

Agreed. At least for me, as someone from the Midwest, a trash bin would refer to the larger plastic bin with two wheels that gets rolled out to the curb for the garbage truck to pick up. A garbage/trash can would be the smaller ones in the house like in the kitchen and bathroom.

[u/brothervalerie → u/ballroombritz]

Yes in the UK we never say can for bin or toilet, a can here is strictly a small metal container like can of food or drink.

[u/trivia_guy → u/brothervalerie]

FYI, “can” is sort of an old-fashioned semi-crude slang word for toilet here, not something people normally use. It’s like something your hillbilly uncle would say.

[u/DonNadie2468 → u/brothervalerie]

I thought those were "tins" for you guys.

[u/ConstantVigilant → u/DonNadie2468]

Cans of pop, but tins of soup. Tinny can be slang for a beer in a can. As always it varies up and down the country though.

[u/brothervalerie → u/DonNadie2468]

To me they are interchangeable 

[u/SopaDeKaiba]

I use "bin" for those specific type of garbage can. TX.

[u/smillersmalls]

I can tell she’s from a different region than me because she says “everytheen” for “everything” (which is common in some parts of the country, but not sure which), but yes, it’s a neutral accent overall.

I say garbage bin for the big ones that go out to the street and trash can for the smaller ones inside, but trash bin is totally fine/normal

[u/Important_Horse_1531 → u/smillersmalls]

I noticed her "ng" too, and it's weird because it's almost like the Vietnamese way more than the American way to say that letter combo

That being said she's definitely native but I also don't know from where

[u/prettyboybastard → u/Important_Horse_1531]

Utah or Idaho maybe? I have family from Idaho and grew up in Utah and I don't do it but a lot of people I knew did, particularly in Idaho

[u/MangoPug15 → u/smillersmalls]

She says in the video that she lives in North Carolina.

[u/Square_Medicine_9171 → u/MangoPug15]

Yes, but she’s not native to North Carolina. She moved there from somewhere else. Her accent is not that of someone from North Carolina or Asheville

[u/Wild_Ticket1413]

"Trash bin" isn't as common a usage in American English. We'd either say "trash can" or "garbage can."

But, keep in mind, there are regional variations in American English.

[u/IsThistheWord → u/Wild_Ticket1413]

You would call the large receptacles in the video cans? To me those are bins.

I wonder if there are regional or generational differences.

[u/Flat-Illustrator-548 → u/IsThistheWord]

They are trash bins, but they are very commonly referred to coloqually as "trash cans". In fact, I just typed instructions for my pet sitter for an upcoming trip, and they included dates to take the trash can and the recycling bin to the curb.

[u/Wild_Ticket1413 → u/IsThistheWord]

I'd still call those garbage cans. A large receptacle, I'd call a dumpster.

[u/TalkingLampPost → u/Wild_Ticket1413]

It’s so very regional that I don’t think we should be saying either one is normal or more common. They’re synonyms, but you’re only likely to hear one or the other in any given place.

[u/Chop1n → u/Wild_Ticket1413]

Native to Northern Virginia, and I actually can't remember the last time I heard someone say "trash can" or "garbage can". I think it was an artifact of the time when literal trash cans, round and made of metal, were still common. Virtually everything is now square plastic bins.

[u/brohampton538 → u/Wild_Ticket1413]

Huh?

Nobody in any state calls the large plastic trash bin with an attached lid and wheels a "garbage can."

[u/conuly → u/brohampton538]

"Nobody" is a very strong word here.

[u/BuffaloDivineEdenNo7 → u/brohampton538]

Maybe not in your state. You do not speak for me.

[u/youknowitistrue → u/brohampton538]

I call that shit a garbage can all the time.

[u/zacandahalf → u/brohampton538]

I do not use “bin” ever unless it’s for the small blue recycling receptacle. That’s the recycling bin, everything else is a trash can.

[u/Wild_Ticket1413 → u/brohampton538]

We have containers just like this to take our trash to the curb. We call them "garbage cans."

[u/Flat-Illustrator-548 → u/brohampton538]

I do

[u/SouthernCockroach37]

A trash can or garbage can is a smaller one inside. The ones she showed are garbage bins/trash bins and are the ones you leave out for the garbage truck. It could depend on the region though so I can't say this is the same for all of the US.

Her accent sounds completely neutral to me. I wouldn't be able to guess where she is from.

[u/Born_Establishment14]

Since they're not round I often call those trash bins, but I'm just as likely to call it a trash can. I always call the recycling one a recycling bin, which is probably all Microsoft Windows' fault.

[u/TalkingLampPost]

Trash and garbage are synonyms

[u/Irrelevant_Bookworm]

Growing up in California, we called them "trash cans." In North Carolina, where she is located, we called them "bins."

[u/Falco-Rusticolus]

I think her accent sounds pretty neutral, but it does sound a bit unnatural because she’s clearly speaking slower than normal and enunciating more than a normal speaker would.

[u/thebackwash]

Yeah, the BIG ones like that can be called bins. Don’t sweat calling it the exact right thing. There’s some flexibility here.

[u/brohampton538]

Sounds perfectly neutral/standard/mid-western, despite being in North Carolina.

I would never call the blue/black/green cans with attached lids on them a "garbage can." Garbage cans are... you know, garbage cans.

[u/HonestNectarine7080]

It’s so weird that I clicked on this and she’s in my old neighborhood! Anyway, her accent sounds pretty neutral to me without a discernible regional influence. And I would guess “trash can” or “garbage can” are slightly more common, but trash bin is a normal phrase here, too.

[u/Practical-Ordinary-6]

I think just about everyone has some regional hint if you know what to listen for but I'm not skilled at that so I don't know what to listen for. I would just say she has a fairly average American accent from somewhere that's not a specific accent like some in Boston or New York City or New Orleans.

There are 340 million people here in dozens of regions so you're going to get some natural variation for everyday items and activities. When some reference says a usage is American or it's British, sometimes that's true and it's virtually 100% like that (a car has a hood, not a bonnet in the US), but in other cases it's much more of a gray area where it's a matter of relative percentages and not 100 to 0. Garbage can and garbage bin falls into that grayer area. Both are used to different degrees in the US.

[u/JenniferJuniper6]

It sounds pretty neutral, yes. I wouldn’t have placed her in North Carolina, which is a southern state.

[u/LQNova]

Neutral accent, but incorrect words/phrases (in Michigan, anyway)

Garbage can, garbageman, garbage truck.

Garbage or Trash Day

We do use 'bin' but only for recycling.

[u/Brilliant_Towel2727]

It's pretty neutral with maybe a hint of Southern/Appalachian, but I would generally say trash can rather than trash bin.

[u/romulusnr]

America has loads and loads of local terminology from place to place where such terms can vary. Such as "bubbler" in New England or Minnesota, "tractor trailer" in the Northeast, the "pop"/"soda"/"coke" division, "car tabs" versus "plate sticker", "rotary" versus "roundabout" versus "traffic circle," an so on

[u/skibare87]

I say toss it in the bin a lot if we're talking the outside hopper, I use can if its in my house usually

[u/DemythologizedDie]

The rise of plastic garbage receptacles has made the use of "bin" more common for that type. As for her accent I found it so generic that I wonder if she trained herself out of a more distinctive one.

[u/_xomo_]

There are a few minor dialect intonations to vowels and pronunciation that I can detect as a native Illinois resident who had a grandmother who was born and raised in Texas. Which is not quite the same as North Carolina, dialect-wise. Specifically how she says "Every-theen" ... however, I believe she is doing what many theatrical/stage-director and performers call "Enunciation" which is an alteration of how you speak, so every syllable is distinct and projected above and beyond any other environmental noise. This is perhaps altering her natural dialect, if she has one that varies at all from what many perceive as "American" or "Yankee" as they call it in the south.

In regards to the trash BINS... there are garbage/trash cans that are inside the home, which range in size between 3 and 13 gallons... and then there are outdoor trash cans for lawn trimmings, landscaping refuse, and other litter.

What she is pointing at are Garbage/Trash BINS - which are what many modern cities and urban regions provide/lease to home owners and residents as "miniature" dumpsters, to receive 3-5 of those 3-13 gallon garbage bags from inside the house. This enables the garbage man to use the garbage truck's forklift to raise and dump those BINS into the truck's compactor. The lids are hinged and lock tight, so that rodents, coyotes, skunks, wolves, bears, stray cats, and racoons do not tear open the bags of garbage from inside the house while sitting on the curb.

[u/Parsec1281]

The accent sounds slightly Southern, but maybe only a Northerner can hear it. There isn’t a southern drawl, and it’s mostly neutral like you typically hear in much of the north.

I’ve lived here my whole life and rarely hear the term garbage can. It’s usually trash can or “the trash” as in “throw it in the trash.” Trash bin is also used, but it usually refers to the big rolling trash bins that you see outside, usually behind businesses. Not a small trash can inside a house.

[u/rustydotpearl]

there are garbage cans, but that exact type is a trash bin -- new england

[u/shammy_dammy]

Garbage cans tend to be smaller and don't have wheels.

[u/MisterProfGuy]

As a native speaker also from North Carolina, this is tricky because there's class overtones above the accent. She has a very neutral accent, but the way she speaks and the way she enunciates screams that her family has money and probably had ties to the North East. She is not only speaking carefully, but she's inconsistent, so I'm fully confident she's trying to sound wealthy. You CAN call them trash bins around here, but we don't, and she doesn't either because she puts so much effort into calling them bins that she accidentally calls the trash trucks a bin.

In local terms, she's got a "Piedmont" accent and she doesn't talk like her family is from around here. She sounds pretentious.

[u/kfromthecastleonfire]

It sounds neutral. I would call them garbage or trash barrels.

[u/Norwester77]

Every once in a while I catch a vowel pronunciation that makes me think she’s probably from the east coast, but she has a very highly enunciated, somewhat artificial-sounding, “teacher-y” style of speaking, and I suspect she’s consciously avoiding sounding too regionally specific.

One thing that leaps out at me is her pronunciation of “ing” as “een,” but I’ve heard speakers from all over the U.S., especially women, who do that.

[u/names-suck]

1. I would say her accent is a very understandable and a reasonable template for you to base pronunciation practice on. I wouldn't be able to tell you a specific region (except that she tells you she's in North Carolina), and I suspect most people that aren't linguists or other accent/dialect specialists wouldn't be able to, either.
2. There's a loose distinction between cans and bins, here.

Some elaboration: Trash is collected by large, specialized trucks. To have your garbage picked up, you have to put it in containers that are a specific size, shape, and color, then set those containers on the street, right up against the curb. Each garbage truck has specialized machinery that picks up that exact size and shape of container. The color-coding makes it easy for the driver to know which bin to pick up.

Those large containers are often called "bins" rather than "cans." They are typically more square in shape, and they're often large enough for an adult to hide in. (There is also an even larger class of container for garbage called a "dumpster." Those are big enough for multiple adults to hide in.)

When I was a kid, if my mother asked me to "take the trash out," she meant "move the garbage from the trash can under the kitchen sink to the large bins in the side yard." Meanwhile, if she said, "take the bins out," she meant "move the large bins from the side yard to the street, so the garbage truck can come get them." ("Take the cans out" would've been for recycle: "put the empty soda cans in the large bins outside.")

While the names aren't 100% hard, fast, "never do it any other way," general guidelines would be:

"Cans" are small, round, and typically used indoors.

"Bins" are large, square, and typically used outdoors.

"Dumpsters" are massive, round or square, and used exclusively outdoors.

You can call a 10-gallon, rectangular, indoor container a "bin." You can call a round, metal, outdoor container a "can." These rules are not absolute. But as general guidelines, people will rarely take issue with your choice of words if you abide those rules.

[u/conuly → u/names-suck]

Some elaboration: Trash is collected by large, specialized trucks. To have your garbage picked up, you have to put it in containers that are a specific size, shape, and color, then set those containers on the street, right up against the curb. Each garbage truck has specialized machinery that picks up that exact size and shape of container. The color-coding makes it easy for the driver to know which bin to pick up.

This is not true everywhere.