student asking question

What's the difference between "tidy" and "clean" as a verb?

teacher

Native speaker’s answer

Rebecca

Good question! To "tidy" means to rearrange or organize things so that they are no longer messy or unorganized. For example, when you arrange the things on your desk in a neat way or pick up clothes off the floor. Meanwhile, to"clean" is more commonly used to refer to the actions of actually cleaning things that are dirty - like wiping things, mopping, dusting, sweeping, and so on. Ex: I tidied up my work desk because it was cluttered with stuff. Ex: My dog tracked mud all over the floor, so I have to clean it.

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