"Small" with uncountable nouns

Question

It possible to say "small" for uncountable nouns like small water?  confused because small is for uncountable nouns but water is uncountable and you can't say small water as its wrong... please could you help!  gracias

Clive · Accepted Answer

Hi,

No, you can't say 'small water'.

Clive

Dimsumexpress · Answer

Hi,
When we describe uncountable (NOUNS) quantity of something, we need a "quantifier" so that it can be expressed precisely grammatically, i.e. A small (cup), (bucket), (glass), (puddle) and amount of water and etc. Conversely, it can be a "large pool of water". or "millions of gallons" of water.

CalifJim · Answer

Anonymousconfused because small is for uncountable nouns

Where did you get the information that 'small' is for uncountable nouns?
I've never heard such a thing.

CJ

Anonymous · Answer

AnonymousIt possible to say "small" for uncountable nouns like small water? confused because small is for uncountable nouns but water is uncountable and you can't say small water as its wrong... please could you help

I think the second 'uncountable' in your question should read 'countable'.

A colloquial expression like small water means a small bottle of water where the head of the noun phrase (the count noun bottle) and the preposition of have been ellipted. So using small is OK since it's effectively modifying the count noun bottle, not the non-count noun water.

You hear this sort of thing quite often where the ellipted head noun is countable, but the noun in the of preposition phrase is non-count. Here's another similar example:

A large beer can mean a large glass of beer where glass is a count noun and beer is a non-count noun. Using large here is OK since it's modifying the ellipted noun glass, not the non-count noun beer.

Best
J

"Small" with uncountable nouns

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