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Exodejavu Posted 18 years ago
Grammar

the bottle of milk

Hello,

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Speaker: The bottle of milk tastes sour.
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Will it cause a misunderstanding that the speaker means that the bottle is sour?

Considering the noun "water bottle," if I want to mean "the container," I think I should say "milk bottle."

Will "the bottle of milk" mean "the container" on occasion?
  

Top answer

Yes, that could actually cause some confusion, at least if you don't just take it as a figure of speech. If you wanted to be more explicit, I suppose you could use "the milk in the bottle is sour".

— Lruc

  • Yes, that could actually cause some confusion, at least if you don't just take it as a figure of speech.
  • If you wanted to be more explicit, I suppose you could use "the milk in the bottle is sour".
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4 Answers
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Yes, that could actually cause some confusion, at least if you don't just take it as a figure of speech. If you wanted to be more explicit, I suppose you could use "the milk in the bottle is sour".
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You want "This milk is sour" or "The milk in this bottle is sour". You are right to see that misunderstanding -- or is it really more like humor? -- can be created if you use "bottle of milk" instead.
CJ
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exodejavuWill "the bottle of milk" mean "the container" on occasion?
No. The milk bottle is the container. The bottle of milk is the milk in the bottle.
Note:
Put the worms in this soup can.
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Thanks.
So I gather that it has no problem saying "the bottle of milk tastes/is sour" to mean "the milk in the bottle tastes/is sour."
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