sweet water.

It means tasty.

Really? Plain water described as tasty? It's tasteless to my buds!

Yes, I think so. Taste of driking water from a tube well is quite different from that of a well
dug on the bank of a rivulet / stream. Even tube well water of different places vary in taste. In villages in Indian subcontinent people don't drink bottled water. Even in towns
people drink boiled or distilled water at home.

New2grammarA native speaker described plain drinking water as sweet

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

Thank you, Yoong Liat and Abil.

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

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

Yoong Liat

New2grammarA 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

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 Nat

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)