Do the laundry means to wash clothes: load the washing machine, then hang things out and fold them. It is one of the household chores, like do the dishes or do the cleaning. In British English do the washing is just as common.
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do the laundry / do your laundry; do the washing (BrE); a load of laundry; hang out / fold the laundry
- I do the laundry on Sunday evenings so I have clean shirts for work.
- Our hostel had a washing machine, so we did our laundry before moving on to Rome.
- My flatmate never does his laundry, and his clothes are all over the bathroom floor.
What changed
First versionI still have two laundries to do tonight.
RevisionI still have two loads of laundry to do tonight.
It is tempting to count washes by adding s to laundry, which gives two laundries. But laundry in the sense of washing or clothes to be washed has no plural, and laundries are businesses that wash clothes. Washes are counted in machine loads: one load, two loads of laundry.
Laundry also means the clothes themselves: hang out the laundry, fold the laundry. A self-service laundry is a laundrette in British English and a laundromat in American English: Our washing machine broke, so I did the laundry at the laundrette.
Your turn
It's my turn to ___ the laundry tonight, so I'll put a wash on after dinner.
Show the answer
do — Laundry goes with do, just like do the dishes or do the cleaning. A native speaker wouldn't say make the laundry: make is usually about creating or preparing something, while washing clothes is a routine chore. The exception among household chores is make the bed.
Describe how laundry is done in your home: who usually does it and on which day.
I do the laundry myself, usually on Saturday mornings before the rest of the family wakes up.
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