PalQ

I'm an avid fan of Coronation Street and it seems with every minor crisis or for any visitor they say "put the kettle on" or "shall i put the kettle on". I know kettle means tea pot but do Brits still put the kettle on as ubiquitously as it seems on Corrie, or is this some outdated habit? Do Brits still put the kettle on?

Barbara

Actually, kettle means kettle. A tea pot is the thing you put the tea into, pour the water from the kettle into and brew the tea. My family puts the kettle on frequently, I even do it myself here in the US.

I can't believe that awful show is still on.

Dreamer2

Does anybody know if there is any significance to the nursery rhyme "Polly put the kettle on.." in regards to:
"Suki take it off again...They've all gone home." ???

Dreamer2

PS:
I wish I had company to sit and fret with! It sounds very civilized...

flanneruk

To be honest, it's not a phrase I've heard since the days we used to put a kettle on a gas stove.

Ever since electric kettles took over, the phrase has been something like "make us a cup of tea, would you?"

The Royle Family, in this as in so many other things, gets modern life rather more accurate than Coronation Street. I mean, really: what industrial city in the West still has a clothing factory?

skikat9

My mum being a Brit, I can tell you, without hesitation, that no self respecting Brit would have company over without putting the kettle on!! That's the first rule of business. And Brits of the old school still use a tea cozy on the teapot. Wouldn't want a cold cuppa, would you?!?!

Suki

Dreamer 2, I had no idea my alias was featured in a nursery rhyme. I am sitting here now having a cup of tea and I googled polly put the kettle on... turns out the origin is unknown but Charles Dickens had a raven recite it in one of his books. Polly was a pet name for Mary and Sukey was a pet name for Susan according to the site I looked at.

Kavey

I'm a Londoner and, at 33, I don't really have a memory of the days before electric kettles.

And the phrase "put the kettle on" (either as a request for a hot drink or as an offer of one) is still used VERY frequently in ALL the circles I experience regularly. They may no longer need to go onto a stove but they still need to be switched on (in most cases).

I hear it in offices and when visiting friends and family.

It's not that people actually think a cup of tea solves anything but that the act of making/ drinking tea is such a very familiar comfort that it's an almost instinctive start to business meetings, visits to friends, good fun gossips or even much sadder and more difficult occasions.

But, just for the record, I can't STAND Coronation Street...

Kavey

On the tea cosy front - I've never used one nor do I now know anyone who does. I recall seeing them once or twice in my lifetime when visiting very old people for tea.

highledge

I will admit to using a tea cozy. But my father gave it to me.

Kayb95

I love Coronation Street! I happen to live close to Canada and I can pick it up on the CBC station. It's on 4 nights a week and a 2-hour rebroadcast on Sunday mornings. Near as I can figure, it's about a year behind what's being broadcast in the UK.

They also call their evening meal "tea."

I just wish you could get a decent cup of tea at an American restaurant. Even the nice restaurants don't get it right. They need to "put the kettle on" - not run the water through the coffee maker.

aquaman

My transplanted family definitely still "put[s] the kettle on"... and I grew up in New Jersey!

Where2Travel

"Put the kettle on" is an expression heard all over the country and by people of all ages.

You will often hear phrases/sayings in Coronation Street that are unique to the north-west of England or northern England but this isn't one of those.

oldie

I have an automatic cordless kettle but still talk about putting the kettle on.
Electric kettles have been around for decades although you may possibly still be able to get the type you put on the stove.
I can confirm that, "I'll put the kettle on" is the standard British response to any crisis from birth to death.
I still use the expression "to leave the phone on the hook". When did phones last have hooks?

Dr_DoGood

Have to weigh in with Kavey here and suggest that Flanner's way off beam - "put the kettle on" remains a ubiquitous phrase in British (and Irish) households.

Kayb95 - calling the evening meal "tea" is a cast iron U/non-U indicator. The working class (such as it exists, let's call it C2, D, E in more modern parlance) have their tea in the evening - in fact in this instance probably only Ds & Es do... even C2's are aspirational these days! (tongue firmly in cheek, folks... I'm not mk2 you know!)
Everybody else knows that the evening meal is dinner and only dogs and children eat dinner at mid-day.
Napkin vs Serviette is another famous marker.

Dr D.

mamarosa

My mother is from Yorkshire, my father, The Bronx....I can remember as a child hearing my mother say on many occasions "put the kettle on love". She still says it to this day. What's funnier though is hearing my father (from The Bronx) say it! Somehow the words and accent just don't quite mesh! I was born in Florida, but did live for a few years in Yorkshire as a young teen, and it never fails that my Florida/New York/Yorkshire accent becomes very Yorkshire-heavy when mom comes over and I ask her if she'd like me to "put the kettle on". So it's not just in the UK where this is heard, come to Tarpon Springs, Florida and I'll gladly "put the kettle on" for you!

mamarosa

PS I also use a teapot and teacozy when I can find it, if the kids have "put it away"!, then a nice towel will suffice, wrapped tightly around the teapot!

BTilke

How odd that I've never heard my British mum in law use that phrase. Perhaps it's because once she left the UK, she traded a "cuppa" for a cappuccino and hasn't looked back!
Anyway, the phrase should now be "better plug the kettle in" instead of "put the kettle on."

JudyC

Please, would someone explain what C2,D and E mean? Thanks.

taggie

Ah, but I (and an aunt as well) still use a kettle that goes on the stove.