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This coffee is also available in packs with smaller amounts?

This coffee is also available in packs of smaller amounts?

Which preposition should I use in the sentence above “of” or “with”? I thought a pack has an amount of something but I couldn’t decide whether I should use “with” or “of”. I gave such an example to understand which preposition should be used for the verb “have”.

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  • Typically, we'd say large, medium or small packages, no preposition or smaller or larger packages. Packages of coffee, like to use at home or in a machine. Or packets.
    – Lambie
    Nov 23, 2022 at 23:21
  • @gonefishin'again. organicroastedcoffee.co.uk/how-to-store-coffee-to-keep-it-fresh package of coffee [unground beans] UK
    – Lambie
    Nov 24, 2022 at 16:46
  • @gonefishin'again. A bag of coffee, yes. A package of coffee, yes. A packet of coffee, yes. Personally, as a coffee drinker, I would never say a pack of coffee.
    – Lambie
    Nov 24, 2022 at 19:03
  • @gonefishin'again. The cherry picker is not me. I gave three possibilities, you initially, one. So....
    – Lambie
    Nov 24, 2022 at 21:02

3 Answers 3

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"Packs of smaller amounts" means the packs themselves are smaller, so they hold a smaller amount of the substance. They will likely be marked with a smaller number on the outside, like packs of 1 kg, 500 g, etc.

"Packs with smaller amounts" could mean the same as above, OR it could mean the same sized packs, but having a smaller amount inside.

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Pack, like many words in English, takes a particular kind of complement: in the case of pack an of phrase, designating the items constituting the pack. So packs of smaller amounts would be idiomatic.

You can use a with phrase with it, as you can with many nouns; but it has no special meaning relative to a "pack" - in particular, it would not normally be understood as specifying the things that the pack was made up of.

So packs with smaller amounts means something like "packs (of something unspecified) accompanied by, or using, smaller amounts". In this case, I guess the meaning would be the same, but I still it's not idiomatic.

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This coffee is also available in packs with/of smaller amounts

Both versions are so awkward that as a native I honestly don't know which might be technically right or wrong. You can count packs using 'of', but there would usually be a quantifier.
"You can buy these in packs of ten." etc.

No-one would really say it that way, unless they were counting, they'd just get the whole thing done with

This coffee is also available in smaller packs.

Or, to give out full information, including the count, all in one shot

This coffee is available in packs of 250g, 500g and 1Kg

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