# is this sentence correct? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 21, 2016, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-sentence-correct/766487 "2016-09-21T06:12:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Channing\_Idaho\_Banks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/channing_idaho_banks/32/250_2.png) [@Channing\_Idaho\_Banks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Channing_Idaho_Banks)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2016, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-sentence-correct/766487/21 "2016-09-21T18:06:27Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > I bet you a buck you can’t find a verb that takes three objects. I saw that video. ---
**Author:** ![Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a183cd/32.png) [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barkis_is_Willin)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2016, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-sentence-correct/766487/22 "2016-09-21T18:57:07Z")
> [@Peremensoe](#): > > Well, I disagree. Boiling isn’t an action that water takes; it is an action taken upon water, or (thereafter) a condition of the water. It’s a present progressive verb. The water is boiling. The verb is “is boiling.” Same with “he is running.” And to the OP, sentence A is the better sentence. I was taught to avoid sentences like, “the water is being boiled” if you can help it. And in this case it’s ok because water boils. ---
**Author:** ![excavating\_for\_a\_mind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e8c25b/32.png) [@excavating\_for\_a\_mind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/excavating_for_a_mind)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2016, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-sentence-correct/766487/23 "2016-09-21T20:04:56Z")
> [@Reza](#): > > which one is correct? > > A. The water is boiling. > B. The water is being boiled. > > I wrote the first one, but somebody said that the water looks like the subject of the verb so it must be in passive form as the sentence B. I said that one of the boil meaning is " to undergo the process of boiling" so I feel that I can say "the water is boiling’ > > by they way, in this sentence we try to mean that “right now” the water is boiling. Like " Hey the water is boiling, could you please turn the oven off?" > > Please help. > thanks. Who boils water in the oven? (unless it is a microwave oven, in which case, it would be “could you turn the microwave off”). ---
**Author:** ![AppallingGael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9bd4f/32.png) [@AppallingGael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AppallingGael)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2016, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-sentence-correct/766487/24 "2016-09-21T23:54:22Z")
> [@Lasciel](#): > > I’ve heard “on the boil” around here too. (Southern Appalachia) That must be where Uncle Albert is from (I knew I knew it from a lyric, but had to google to see just what). ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2016, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-sentence-correct/766487/25 "2016-09-22T00:19:44Z")
C. “The water’s aboil.” ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2016, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-sentence-correct/766487/26 "2016-09-22T00:40:10Z")
I think it’s just ambiguous. I can’t think of any reason to analyze as exclusively the present progressive or as a copula. It can be an intransitive, reflexive usage of _to boil_, hence “is boiling” is the present progressive. Or it can be a copula, where “boiling” is an adjective describing the current state of the water, and “is” is a linking verb. To convey the difference, I would have to use something less ambiguous, like “The water is boiling hot,” or, yes, “the water is being boiled.” Otherwise only context can tell the difference. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2016, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-sentence-correct/766487/27 "2016-09-22T06:41:55Z")
> [@Peremensoe](#): > > Well, I disagree. Boiling isn’t an action that water takes; it is an action taken upon water, or (thereafter) a condition of the water. In the very second post **Jeff Lichtman** mentions one of the common meanings of the verb _boil_, which is, “to become so hot that bubbles are formed in a liquid and rise to the top,” (and which actually is more common than the other meaning), and in the third post I point out (and **Hari Seldon** repeats later) that there is class of verb in which the patient effectively becomes the subject of the verb. I gave examples of some other verbs in this class (_open_, _break_). How else do you explain this sentence, \*Water boils at 100 degrees.\*which appears in every middle school physics text ever printed? ---
**Author:** ![Reza](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Reza](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reza)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2016, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-sentence-correct/766487/28 "2016-09-22T19:49:25Z")
> [@Peremensoe](#): > > Well, I disagree. Boiling isn’t an action that water takes; it is an action taken upon water, or (thereafter) a condition of the water. Thanks for your comment, but take a look at this, Boil, (verb) [intransitive ,  transitive] **when a liquid boils** or when you boil it, it is heated to the point where it forms bubbles and turns to steam or vapour The water was bubbling and boiling away. Any second thought? ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2016, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-sentence-correct/766487/29 "2016-09-22T19:58:52Z")
OK, I was wrong. As a general matter of the grammar, anyway; I still think I was right in characterizing the original sentence as a statement about the condition of the water. ---
**Author:** ![Reza](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Reza](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reza)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2016, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-sentence-correct/766487/30 "2016-09-22T20:01:25Z")
Thank you everyone for comprehensive reviews and comments. I appreciate all of them. To those who object “ the water is boiling” as an appropriate phrase in below context Mum: Hey Tim go and check if the hot water is ready. Tim: Yes Mum, the water is boiling, shall I turn the oven off? Please let me know what is the appropriate and the most common phrase in your everyday life expressing the Tim’s reply to his mum? Thank you. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-sentence-correct/766487.md?page=1)