Choose the correct meaning of idiom: Carry coals to Newcastle
- (a)Provide something where it is already abundant
- (b)Seek advice from experts
- (c)Complain without cause
- (d)Travel without direction
Answer
Why
Correct — A. To carry coals to Newcastle is to take or supply something to a place that already has plenty of it, which makes the effort pointless.
The trigger is the place name. Newcastle upon Tyne, in north-east England, was a major coal-exporting port, so coal brought there adds nothing.
That is 'provide something where it is already abundant' → option (a).
Why the others are wrong
- (b)Seek advice from experts — The idiom is about supplying something, not asking for anything. Nothing in hauling coal to a coal town suggests consulting an expert.
- (c)Complain without cause — Complain without cause fits no coal idiom. The one it may recall, haul someone over the coals, means to scold someone severely.
- (d)Travel without direction — Travel without direction misreads the journey in the image. The trip has a definite destination, Newcastle, and the point is that the cargo is useless there.
Concept
This idiom works by redundancy: the effort is wasted because the destination already has plenty of what is being delivered.
It is said of offering goods, help or advice to someone who plainly does not need them, like lecturing a doctor on basic first aid.
The key is the one concrete fact inside the phrase, Newcastle's coal. Without it, the idiom is opaque.
The phrase is often shortened to 'coals to Newcastle', used on its own to call an offer pointless.
Key facts
- Carry coals to Newcastle means to supply something to a place or person that already has plenty of it.
- Newcastle upon Tyne, in north-east England, was a major coal-exporting port.
- Haul someone over the coals is a different idiom, meaning to scold someone severely.
Study next
Common traps
- Choosing complain without cause because the coal image recalls haul someone over the coals, which is about scolding.
- Reading the phrase literally as a journey and picking travel without direction.
The idiom is given on its own, with no sentence around it, and four plain-English meanings to choose from.
Toe the line, at English Q.5 of this shift, is asked in the same bare form.
Related PYQs
No directly related past PYQ was found.