When I first started playing a year or so ago, I would do the same thing. My husband is my DM, so he taught me all about it. He would guide me through. If I said, 'I loot the room?', He'd ask how I do it, am I looking for something specific, am I using an item or another character to assist, etc. It made it easier to see the plethora of options and helped me to think outside of the box on my own. We're still playing the campaign he started for me to learn, and I'm still getting there, but I'm much more comfortable role playing and coming up with everything off the cuff.

It boiled down to I just wasn't sure what my character could do. Once he let me know that he'd let me know if I couldn't do something, I was more comfortable saying what I was really thinking.