A couple of tins (of cat) food

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
1

Hi,

“I bought a couple of tins of cat food for Pussy.” Right. Could I simply say “I bought a couple of tins food for Pussy”?

Thanks in advance. Bye

2

“a couple of tins food” is ungrammatical. It must be “a couple of tins of food”.

3

But I can say “Did you buy some tin food too?” for example. Alright. Thanks Dozy.

4

No. You can say “Did you buy some tinned food too?”

In speech, “tinned food” and “tin food” may not sound terribly distinct.

5

I really wasn’t expecting this. I found that sentence - Did you buy some tin food too? - in an English grammar book.

6

Could another native speaker comment on “tin food”?

7

‘Tin food’, can mean, I am afraid ‘food made of tin’. Take another example: bottled water (water in a bottle) and not bottle water. If I were you, I’d definitely use a diffent grammar book.

Alan

8

That’s incredibile. I’ll write to the (Italian) author of the book.

9

(°) incredible.

10

Well, maybe we should not damn the whole book just yet on the basis of one error…

11

I think things are becoming a little confused. The original statement which you took from the book was :
… a couple of tins of cat food…
That is perfectly acceptable.
It would not be acceptable to talk about ‘tin cat food’, but that’s not what the author did.

12

Hello Bev,

In #5 Mr Francis cites another sentence taken from a grammar book, that reads “Did you buy some tin food too?”
:slight_smile:

13

I wouldn’t say incredible, maybe mildly surprising, since the author is not a native speaker (Italian)
:=))

14

Ah yes, thank you, Tort. I was looking at the original message.

15

Hi Mr Francis,

I should really be interested to know the name of this Italian grammar book. Some years ago I collaborated with an Italian Professor on his English grammar book - I just wonder if that is the same book.

Alan

16

Hi Mr Francis,

I should really be interested to know the name of this Italian grammar book. Some years ago I collaborated with an Italian Professor on his English grammar book - I just wonder if that is the same book.

Alan

17

Hi everyone,

This is the link of the book: catalogo.giunti.it/scheda.php?idscheda=16641

Thanks for your attention.

PS: Bev, I don’t speak fluent English but I’m not an idiot! :wink:

18

By the way, Alan wrote “I should really be interested to know…”. Right. Can I say “I’d be really interested to know…” too? If so, would the meaning be the same?

Thanks.

19

Yes, you can say that (with “I’d” understood to mean “I would”), and yes, the meaning is the same. “I should be…” is more formal and/or used by a certain category of speaker, including more mature BrE speakers.

20

Hi Dozy, thanks. Yes, with “I’d” I meant “I would”. That’s good news. :slight_smile: