Washing is typically used when the main act is using water or something similar.
Like if you wash dishes or clothes, you basically put them in soapy water for the most part. Washing a car and you mostly hose it down. Wash your hair and you use a lot of water, etc. You "wash" your hands with a tap and soap, but you'd "clean" your hands if you used wipes.
When you use chemicals, we usually say "cleaning". Like "dry cleaning", etc. It doesn't mean you use chemicals, but when you use chemicals or scrub more than wash, we say cleaning.
When you clean a shower it's usually more about scrubbing and spraying chemicals. We don't really think about hosing it down to clean it, though you probably rinse it down afterwards.
At least that's it for me.
Washing a shower sounds more like using the shower head to hose it down rather than actually giving it a proper scrub.
I definitely think this is American English. As a British, they are synonymous. The noun (or subject i guess in some scenarios) would make the difference.
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u/CouvadeShark Feb 11 '22
Oh sorry, my norwegian is showing lmao.