Meaning & use
a porta potty
Last updated
Meaning
nouncountableinformalAmerican
A small movable toilet in a booth, used at outdoor events or construction sites.
Grammar: Countable: you can say 'a porta potty' or 'porta potties'.
Patterns
- use a porta potty
- rent a porta potty
- a line for the porta potty
The festival had rows of porta potties near the entrance.
We had to rent a porta potty for the outdoor wedding.
Word forms
| plural | porta potties |
|---|
Common combinations
- rent a porta potty
- They rented a porta potty for the garden party.
- a row of porta potties
- A row of porta potties stood behind the stage.
- the porta potty line
- The porta potty line was long during the break.
Synonyms and how they differ
- portable toilet
- Portable toilet is the neutral, more formal term; porta potty is informal and mainly American.
- Portaloo
- Portaloo is a British trademark name often used informally for the same thing.
Word family
- portable toilet noun
- A more formal term for the same movable toilet.
Commonly confused: a porta potty or potty?
a porta potty vs potty
Potty usually means a small toilet for a young child; a porta potty is a full-size movable toilet for adults.
Practice
At an outdoor concert, you might ask: 'Where is the ___?'
Choose one answer.
After 'the' and before 'is', you need the singular countable form 'porta potty'. 'Porta potties' is plural and would need 'are'; the other forms are not nouns.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “a porta potty”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.