68
I think most Brits would say, "Put the kettle on", with both the electricity and the water taken for granted.
It's what we used to say even before we had electricity, and it was enshrined in the nursery rhyme of circa 1800, "Polly put the kettle on," whose deathless lyrics are:
Polly put the kettle on
Polly put the kettle on
Polly put the kettle on
...
20
This may be a regional thing, but speaking as an American:
I'd probably say "please put on the kettle". This doesn't make much literal sense -- put what on the kettle? -- but it's a common idiom.
Or, "please start the kettle".
Or more generally: "please make some tea". Sure, this doesn't specify to use a kettle, but that would likely be assumed. As ...
19
The phrasings that are most idiomatic to me (British) would be:
Could/can you put the kettle on, please?
Could/can you boil the kettle, please?
9
As a first-language speaker, the first word that comes to mind is "boil". That is,
Please boil the kettle. We need some hot water.
This is obviously an idiomatic expression. I wouldn't suggest using "set up" since it isn't idiomatic. Another option you could use is
Please put on the kettle.
Both imply that you are boiling the water within the ...
6
In Australia and New Zealand, the phrasing for this is either "put the kettle on" (derived from British usage) or "boil the kettle".
Native speakers in both countries also commonly replace 'kettle' in these phrases with 'jug' (prior to electric appliances being universally available, ceramic jugs and metal kettles were both used for boiling water, and many ...
3
I as an American do not find "boil the kettle" an idiomatic way to say
fill the electric kettle with liquid and then apply the appropriate amount of electrical current to the kettle in order to heat the liquid to some unspecified degree
I cannot recollect a single verb that expresses the combined actions of filling a container with liquid and then ...
2
Depending on one's heritage, one might also say "put the billy on" which is grammatically identical to kettle or jug.
Probably more common for those who spent time camping, or maybe working in the fields where your hot water literally came from a billy-can over an open fire.
This is an AU/NZ concept, but should be understood by a Briton or Irish, according ...
1
In American West Coast talk, I would ask my friend to “get some going”, e.g
“Hey Ahmad, could you get some tea going?”
Or
“Hey, Alice, could you get some hot water going?”
1
I'm surprised nobody's used this one, it's the first thing that came to mind. It is a little bit of a variation though:
Please brew some tea/[hot] water [in the kettle].
("hot" and "in the kettle" might be optional here.)
My second choice would be:
Please make some tea/hot water [in the kettle].
These sound most natural to me.
1
"Stick on the kettle" is often used in British English. See, for example, the song "Stick the kettle on" by Lucy Spraggan feat. Scouting For Girls. Further discussion can be found here https://forum.wordreference.com/threads/stick-the-kettle-on.2895823/.
1
"Jeeves! Ready the tea!"
Yes, it overshoots the original intent, but if you're going to ask for hot water you might as well go all the way and get to the real intended result.
But I'd upvote "put the kettle on" if I could.
1
While I'm more likely to say "put on the kettle", I might also "run the kettle" in the same way that I would "run the dishwasher" or "run a load of laundry".
"While I'm already running the kettle, should I heat up enough water for you also?"
1
It depends on the verb. Some verbs are separable, some aren't. There's no pattern, I'm afraid. A quick Google search led me to this list. Learner's dictionaries, such as Oxford and Cambridge, often give a few example sentences after each definition, which might help you figure out if the verb is separable or not.
One thing you need to remember is that if ...
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