Consider the following image.
In school, I was taught there are four "bottles of water". Do native English speakers say it that way in everyday life, or would it be better to say "four water bottles"?
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6Why would you think this is not everyday English? Why are you asking about this phrase and not another one?– James KMar 22, 2020 at 9:01
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4@JamesK Because when I searched "bottles of water" I got lots of water bottles.– WXJ96163Mar 22, 2020 at 9:17
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10"Water bottles" is not as a phrase as "bottles of water" as the latter is mainly used in my experience when referring to clear plastic single-use bottles, while the former also often means reusable ones.– StormblessedMar 22, 2020 at 18:28
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9To add to the fun, there is also a 'hot water bottle' which is not a bottle at all and would never be called a bottle of hot water.– mcalexMar 23, 2020 at 7:22
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2@JMac In the sense that if you bought a "water bottle" at an online store, and they sent you a "hot water bottle", you can easily get a refund or dispute the charge as "incorrect merchandise" and no credit card will bat an eye and refund you. Nobody drinks out of a hot water bottle either, since you can never clean it properly with the corners, and it'll most likely have unsanitary build-up inside.– NelsonMar 23, 2020 at 15:24
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9 Answers
Yes, it's fine in everyday life. For example, in this recent headline from Metro, the free London newspaper:
Panic buyer screams at Tesco staff for refusing to let him buy 24 bottles of water
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32@WXJ96163 I can't think of any. "Water bottle" sounds like you want to buy a reusable bottle.– richardbMar 22, 2020 at 9:39
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9'Bottle of water' is already reduced as much as possible. A bottle. Of water. That's it. Mar 22, 2020 at 9:46
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3@WoJ sure, but it wouldn't be understood as meaning "bottle of water" without extremely strong contextual hints.– Chris HMar 23, 2020 at 9:19
Both phrases are idiomatic but they don't mean the same thing. The difference between "water bottles" and "bottles of water" is the water.
Bottles of water have water in them.
Water bottles can be empty.
An empty water bottle is not a bottle of water, though it might be a bottle of air.
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11Also, arguably, a "bottle of water" can still be a bottle of water after you've poured it out of the bottle. Basically it can be interpreted as a unit of measure, whereas a "water bottle" cannot. Mar 22, 2020 at 16:02
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36A bottle of water from which the water is poured becomes an empty water bottle. Mar 22, 2020 at 16:05
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5Yeah, a lot of customary everyday measurements can be ambiguous like that. People still use them, though. For instance, the smallest coffee cup I have is probably about one tenth the size of the biggest one (unless you'd consider that one a mug instead of a cup — another rather fuzzy distinction), but like most people I still routinely use expressions like "I've had two cups of coffee this morning." Mar 22, 2020 at 16:17
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8@Ilmari Karonen: This is especially annoying in the US, where a cup is a standard unit of measure (0.236588 liter), and most coffee cups are close to that size, yet the manufacturers of coffee makers persist in labelling them in "cups" that are about half that size.– jamesqfMar 22, 2020 at 17:37
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4@MichaelHarvey Not necessarily. If I fill a wine bottle with water, I have a bottle of water. If I pour the water out again, I have an empty wine bottle, not an empty water bottle. "Bottle of X" indicates what the bottle currently contains; "X bottle" indicates what the bottle is generally expected to contain. Mar 24, 2020 at 9:56
You can see the same structure used with all sorts of English phrases, e.g.
- Bottle of beer vs beer bottle
- Soda can vs can of soda
- Packet of crisps vs crisp packet
- Paint tin vs tin of paint
If you say "water bottle" you're using "water" as an adjective to describe the type of bottle it is — a bottle (usually) used to store water. So that could be a branded bottle (e.g. Evian) or a reusable bottle that people refill from a water cooler or tap.
If you say "bottle of water" you're putting emphasis on the state of things — there is some water in the bottle, (but you're not commenting on the type of bottle).
So you could say:
Can I put cooking oil in a water bottle?
This person is asking if they can put oil into a disposable bottle normally used for water (water bottle). If they do, we could say it's a "bottle of oil" even though it's in a water bottle :)
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6And there is a (too!) well-known song about "99 bottles of beer on the wall" but not about "99 beer bottles ..." Mar 23, 2020 at 0:55
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2@dave_thompson_085 - Don't pass them around!!! Social distancing!!! Mar 24, 2020 at 22:26
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To add to this: if I bought a bottle of Budweiser, poured the beer out, then filled it up with water, I would have "a beer bottle full of water". "an X bottle" can refer to the design of the bottle and/or the liquid it's supposed to hold, even if it's filled with something different.– GMAMar 25, 2020 at 10:08
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Although come to think of it, you can say "a beer bottle" and a "bottle of water", but it sounds a bit unnatural to say "a beer bottle of water" (without adding "full" like in my previous comment.)– GMAMar 25, 2020 at 10:11
A bottle of water is any bottle that currently contains water.
A water bottle is a bottle designed/intended to hold water. If you get an empty Coke bottle and put water in it, it's a "bottle of water" but not a "water bottle".
Now people do reuse purchased bottles of water and those do get called water bottles, but if you say "water bottle" most people will usually think of a product purchased without water, usually made from heavy duty plastic or steel.
Photo by Amraepowell
answered Mar 22, 2020 at 23:05
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1The modern mariner buys 24 water bottles. "Bottles, bottles, everywhere, but not a drop to drink."– user583Mar 23, 2020 at 14:42
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Although if you customarily use that specific Coke bottle to hold water it may become a 'water bottle', and least to people who know what you usually use it for. Mar 25, 2020 at 10:40
A bottle of water is a bottle with water in it. A water bottle is a bottle that is used to hold water whether or not it contains water right now.
This applies to many containers that hold liquids: a teapot, a pot of tea; a paint bucket, a bucket of paint; a wine glass, a glass of wine.
Agreed with Curiousdanii, but with one clarification. A "water bottle" is always a multi-use item, not a single use plastic bottle. Even when empty or when something else is in it, it's still a "water bottle" and is referred to as such. Even is someone refilled a crinkly plastic single use bottle and is using it as a "water bottle", it's only obvious if you're pointing to it when you say "Hand me my water bottle." Otherwise I'd look around for a metal or hard plastic one until they said, "that one there!". A plastic bottle of water is usually referred to as "bottled water" (at least where I'm from) and is referred to that way "How much for a bottled water?", or can be "How much for a bottle of water?", but "How much for the water bottle?" is almost always said with trepidation referring to an overpriced contraption with special insulation or at least an easy open non-spill top.
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The second sentence really isn't correct: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_bottle#Single-use_plastic . It's probably a phrase that is used differently between regions and groups.– epsMar 23, 2020 at 20:00
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Actually, these days water bottles rarely contain insulation. Rather, there's two layers of metal with a vacuum between. We used to use insulation because the vacuum devices were easy to break, but now they're rugged enough that they have pretty much replaced insulation. Mar 24, 2020 at 4:50
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I don't think it's wrong, at least in the UK, to say "a water bottle" to talk about an empty single-use plastic bottle. E.g. I have a few big empty "single-use" bottles that I've saved in a cupboard which I fill up to take on camping trips etc.. If I was packing for one of these trips it wouldn't be wrong to say "don't forget to fill up the water bottles!"– GMAMar 25, 2020 at 10:14
“Bottle of water” refers to the container and its contents.
“Water bottle” refers to the container.
A water bottle is a bottle for water[1].
A bottle of water is water in a bottle.
Bottle bottle bottle bottle bottle.
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[1] But not necessarily containing water.
In an era of hypermarkets this distinction has been lost but once you had to visit two different places to buy a bottle of water and a water bottle.
