davkett  +  129713 Mon, 22 Aug 05 10:37 PM Yes, that's a good one, too, May.  'Martini on the rocks' = a martini poured into a glass containing chunks of ice.     davkett Joined on Tue, Jun 7 2005 Pennsylvania, USA Senior Member 2,788 "The rose stays fresh in its name..." -Bernard of Morlay

	khoff  +  131124 Sat, 27 Aug 05 04:45 AM I think if you are talking about a building or sculpting material you would be somewhat more likely to use "stone" - The statue was carved out of stone; there was a stone wall around the property.  If you pick up a rock/stone on the beach, you can use either word. Another difference in the way I use the words occured to me today, and it seemed so obvious I was surprised I had not thought of it when this question first arose.  I would tend to call something a rock if it was rough and irregular, and call it a stone if it was smooth and rounded (either deliberately by people, or naturally by a river or ocean).  I don't mean to suggest that it's really a "rule" -- I would never "correct" someone by saying,  "oh, that's not a rock, it's a stone!" -- but I think this is the way I usually use the words.  It somehow goes along with using "stone" referring to something that has been used or shaped by people -- a stone is a rock that has been civilized, or maybe domesticated.  I'd be very curious to know if anyone else agrees with this analysis. (Besides my daughters, who both agree with me.) khoff Joined on Sun, Mar 6 2005 Senior Member 3,271 Native speaker of American English (but not a grammar expert)

	davkett  +  131235 Sat, 27 Aug 05 01:10 PM Generally, Khoff, I'd agree, (on the smooth/irregular connotation), and earlier in the thread, I think MrPedantic hinted at the same, (at least between 'rock' and 'pebble').  I'm going to venture a guess that such usage is the result of the type of sounds the words make in speaking them.  Though speech sounds is not any area of expertise for me at all, I will suggest that 'rock' is a harder, clipped, chipped, or rough sound, than 'stone', which is resonant and smooth.  It makes some sense to me that when two words are this close in meaning it could be the sound of the words that will influence their usage over time.  What do you think?    davkett

	khoff  +  131318 Sat, 27 Aug 05 10:22 PM I think it's a great theory - a rock is rough and ragged; a stone is smooth and circular. khoff

	LanguageLover  +  132004 Tue, 30 Aug 05 01:15 AM To me, as you know I'm not a native speaker and so I do not have the right to say anything on this subtle matter, I think of material when I hear that the statue is carved out of stone, rather than metal or something else; however, the replacement by the rock doesn't give me this feeling, it only means out of a piece of rock to me!   LanguageLover Joined on Fri, Feb 25 2005 Contributing Member 1,507 The similarities among the languages are more than their differences!

	paco2004  +  132011 Tue, 30 Aug 05 01:50 AM My definitions about rocks and stones are:       (1) Rocks are big stones and stones are small rocks.       (2) You can find rocks in mountains and stones in riverbeds.       (3) If you bring a rock into your garden, it is now a big stone.       (4) If you cut a rock into pieces, each of them is a stone.       (5) If you cut a stone into pieces, each of them is still a stone.       (6) Some rolling stones can play rocks. paco paco2004 Joined on Wed, Nov 17 2004 Senior Member 4,095 In Japan today even dogs are learning how to bow-wow in English.