I think it's very funny that English has no universal "thing you say" when someone knocks on the bathroom door to indicate it's in use. Everyone just anxiously says something random very fast to be heard before the door can be opened.
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in reply to @shel's post:
i feel like "occupied!" is the closest we have, but it takes me a full second to think of that, so every single time i have blurted out anything else
anything can be english if enough english speakers use it as part of their everyday english speech. also while i usually go with "yeah!?" in the moment i gotta agree that occupado is the official toilet answer
There’s a lot of common Spanish in New Mexican English that people outside of the area have no idea about, even in other areas with a lot of Spanish speakers. Like “arroyo”. Everyone knows that that is in NM but I have never heard it in California. Or “bosque”, which even if they know the word they don’t mean it the same way, it’s just any kind of forest, apparently.
oh absolutely that, but with the tinge of high-pitched panic, particularly if the lock's broken
a recent favorite of mine is just "yep!", which has the benefits of 1) being one syllable makes it really easy to say quickly and 2) allows me to imagine that I'm intentionally misinterpreting the knock intended to establish the occupancy of the bathroom as instead being just a normal greeting
fellow "yep" adherent here
sometimes I will say "just a second" if "yep" doesn't work
what DO people say in other languages because I didn't know that was a thing and I'm intrigued
"Hang on"
"Hold your fuckin' horses, mate" if they knock again
I have learned that if I answer "Yes?" my kids take it as an invitation to come in. "Don'tcomein! What do you want?" usually works.
