ESL General English Grammar Questions

Re: sweet water.

Tanit — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 18:16:32 GMT

"Plain water" aside, another term I encountered in the UK as opposed to "sparkling water" was "still water".

Some examples from the UK:

"Product withdrawal of Dasani bottled still water" (source)
"Still water outsells cola" (source)
"Still water in Drinks & Juices" (source)

Re: sweet water.

New2grammar — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 18:02:23 GMT

CJ, finally, I get a satisfactory answer!.

Yoong Liat, thanks. It was a typo.

Khoff, you could have spelled it out. :) I agree. Accent is a difficult thing. I once had a problem understanding an American from Kentucky. Her accent sounded funny to me.

Re: sweet water.

khoff — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 17:57:28 GMT

This thread reminds me of a time many, many years ago when my sister and I were in England. We requested water in a restaurant and the waiter could not understand what we wanted because of our American accents. It took several repetitions and more than one waiter before they realized what we were asking for.

Re: sweet water.

New2grammar — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 17:07:48 GMT

HAHA... but your breath gives you away.

Re: sweet water.

Yoong Liat — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 17:07:48 GMT

New2grammar
achive

I think the usage of 'plain water' has become too widespread to be labelled as incorrect.

I think you wanted to type 'achieve'. I think it's a typo.

Best wishes.

Re: sweet water.

CalifJim — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 17:06:21 GMT

New2grammar
A native speaker described plain drinking water as sweet. What does sweet mean?

Somewhat unrelated to your context, water throughout the earth is divided into salt water and fresh water. An alternate name for fresh water, and I believe it's chiefly British, is sweet water.

Re: sweet water.

optilang — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 17:03:19 GMT

Results 11 - 20 of about 793,000 for "plain water". (0.17 seconds)

I see nothing wrong with the term. Very often, when people ask if the drink I have is vodka, I reply "No, it's just plain water!" (Honestly, that's all I drink)

Re: sweet water.

New2grammar — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 17:00:36 GMT

I agree with you that in normal context, we would say water. However, when you want to emphasize that the water is non-carbonated or other types of water, you may want to use plain to separate it from other categories of water, which is what I wanted to achive in my original question. I see it as Chinese vs the chinese (not the Italian)

Re: sweet water.

Yoong Liat — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 16:54:27 GMT

Hi New2grammar and Khoff

When Singaporeans ask for water in a restaurant, they use the term pain water. Plain water may, nevertheless, have ice in it.

Standard English speakers would simply ask for water.

(Singapore English in a Nutshell by Adam Brown)

The author is an Associate Professor in the School of Arts of the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University. He has taught at universities in Britain,Thailand and Malaysia. He holds a doctorate in phonetics frrom the University of Edinburgh, and has written widely on lingustics and English language teaching.

Re: sweet water.

khoff — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 14:43:27 GMT

Yoong Liat

New2grammar
A native speaker described plain drinking water as sweet

According to an English usage book, we should say 'water', not 'plain water'.

What's supposed to be wrong with saying "plain water"? It seems perfectly nautral to me -- especially now that there are a zillion kinds of bottled water, including carbonated water, vitamin-enhanced water, and, as I noticed yesterday, "oxygen-infused" water.

Re: sweet water.

Feebs11 — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 14:32:29 GMT

"sweet water" is water that has not been adulterated by salt or alkiline substances.

Re: sweet water.

New2grammar — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 14:20:54 GMT

Yoong Liat, can we use plain to emphasize nothing in the water, no sugar or any ingredients?
http://books.google.com.my/books?hl=en&q=plain%20water&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wp

Re: sweet water.

New2grammar — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 14:19:18 GMT

Thank you, Yoong Liat and Abil.

Re: sweet water.

Yoong Liat — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 14:13:04 GMT

New2grammar
A native speaker described plain drinking water as sweet

According to an English usage book, we should say 'water', not 'plain water'.

Re: sweet water.

Abil — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 13:12:44 GMT

Yes, I think so.Â Taste of drikingÂ waterÂ fromÂ aÂ tubeÂ wellÂ isÂ quiteÂ differentÂ fromÂ thatÂ ofÂ aÂ well
dug on the bank ofÂ aÂ rivulet /Â stream.Â EvenÂ tubeÂ well waterÂ ofÂ differentÂ placesÂ varyÂ inÂ taste. InÂ villagesÂ inÂ IndianÂ subcontinentÂ peopleÂ don'tÂ drinkÂ bottledÂ water.Â EvenÂ inÂ towns
peopleÂ drinkÂ boiledÂ or distilled waterÂ atÂ home.