Idiom "If you watch a kettle, it never boils"

[Migrelli]

Test No. incompl/inter-14 "Popular Idioms (1)", question 2

If you watch a kettle, it never ..........

(a) cooks
(b) stew
(c) boils
(d) heats

Test No. incompl/inter-14 "Popular Idioms (1)", answer 2

If you watch a kettle, it never boils.

Correct answer: (c) boils

Your answer was: incorrect
If you watch a kettle, it never heats.
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what's the meaning of this idiom?

Migrelli

[Alan]

This expression means: If you wait for something to happen without trying to do anything at all, it will never happen.
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English as a Second Language
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[unison]

Does that not mean that when you wait impatiently for things to happen, they will never happen just because you are WAITING for them (and someway pushing on them) instead of letting them go themselves?
It's almost the contrary of your explanation... Am I wrong?

[Alan]

Thank you. You are absolutely right and I have given a strange explanation! A watched kettle never boils means that if you keep on wishing something to happen. it will take much much longer.
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English as a Foreign Language
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[Mudium]

hi
why can't we boil some thing in kettle
jyo

[Torsten]

Of course you can boil water in a kettle. What makes you think you can't?

TOEIC listening, photographs: A horse back rider on the beach

[Mudium]

hi
If you watch a kettle, it never boils. I did'nt understand this sentence , please explain me .
thanks
jyo

[Torsten]

Hi,

Please let me know which part of Alan's explanation you don't understand:

[Mudium]

i am sorry , i did not read Alan's explaination properly .
thank you torsten to correct my sentence.
jyo

[Shzatf]

hi everybody , I'm new here. I'm really excited to join the forum as i feel that its the best plateform to clear my concepts about proper grammatical use of english . Alan, i just read your explanation of the idiom ''If you watch a kettle , it never boils" but then there was another explanation by a guest unison which seems contrary to yours.but you told him that his explanation is correct . I could not get it .Please explain it to me. and is it that it is the meaning of "a watched kettle never boils " and it is a different idiom from "if you watch a kettle it never boils
want to make another request that could you please tell me about any grammatical mistake i have made in this message because the main reason why i hesitate to speak english is that i do not feel confident about my sentence construction.
Thanks in advance

[Beeesneees]

A watched kettle never boils
is the idiomatic phrase
If you watch a kettle, it never boils is not an idiom, but is a sentence which extends the idiom.
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Cheers m' dears!

[Alan]

Hi Shzatf,

Obviously variations on the idea of the kettle being watched will mean the same because the idiom is encapsulated in the image of this kettle 'not boiling'.

I would point out that convention requires that you write the first person singular as a capital letter regardless of its position in a sentence - 'I'.

Alan
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