a bottle of (something to) drink (2024)

Hi, let's say two people are starting to climb a mountain. One of them says, "Just wait here, I'm going to grab a bottle of drink. Have you got yours already?", before heading to a nearby vending machine.

The reason he specified the type of container ("bottle") is that he knew it would be convenience because it's re-cappable. The reason he said "drink" instead of "water", "(Japanese/Chinese) tea", etc. is that he hadn't decided what kind of drinks to buy at that time. (They are obviously in Japan, where vending machines sell bottles of Japanese/Chines teas, coffees, etc.)

Does "a bottle of drink" in the example work or should it be "a bottle of something to drink"?

"I need to get something to drink". I can't think why she would feel the need to announce exactly what in. It would be like saying as you go into the cafe "I'm going to have some tea in a cup, with two sugars, no milk".

Now, if she were advising her novice climbing companion, it would make sense to say "Make sure you get it in a bottle with a sports top", if that's what that sort of top is called.* You pull part of it up to drink from it. Then there's the sort with the joined flap top. The point is not that they are re-cappable, since most bottles are in my experience, but that the cap is joined to the bottle in one way or another so it can't be lost.
* It seems it is called a sports cap.
Packaging Styles - Bottle Caps by Liquid Packaging Solutions

I'd say either 'a bottle of drink', or 'something to drink'.

(And I'd be pleasantly surprised to find a vending machine so conveniently sited near the bottom of the mountain. )

Cross-posted.

pob14 said:

"A bottle of drink" does not work at all for me. Perhaps that's an AE/BE difference?

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In fact, two posters who said "a bottle of drink" doesn't work (in another thread of mine) were both AE speakers. This is interesting. The following is an even better example (which I've just created).

- A truck driving in front of me carrying bottles of drinks suddenly rolled over, but I managed to escape it.

The speaker could see that the drinks the truck was carrying were all bottled drinks. But he couldn't tell what kinds of drinks they were. Some looked like water, some looked like Coke, some looked like wine...
Does "bottles of drinks" in this sentence not work in AE? What expression would you use instead? "bottled drinks"?

A: A truck driving in front of me suddenly rolled over, but I managed to escape it.
B: What was it carrying?
A: Bottles of drinks.

Why should A bother to mention "bottles"?
If I were A, I'd mention it. I'd want to make information as accurate as possible for the sake of B.

meijin said:

"Just wait here, I'm going to grab a bottle of drink.

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"A bottle of

."

meijin said:

B: What was it carrying?
A: Bottles of drinks.

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"

."

So, "a bottle of" doesn't work when the content is not specific enough. That's really interesting.

1. There were a few bottles of drinks on the table.
2. There were a few bottles of soda on the table. (I believe this works, just like "bottles of wine")
3. There were a few bottles of Sprite on the table.

And I wonder if the same applies to, say, "box".

4. There were a few boxes of food on the table.
5. There were a few boxes of candy on the table.
6. There were a few boxes of M&M's on the table.

meijin said:

4. There were a few boxes of food on the table.

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That mostly sounds weird because I don't equate food with boxes. This sounds fine:

There were a few some platters of food on the table.

Also:
There were a few some bottled drinks on the table.

meijin said:

4. There were a few boxes of food on the table.

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"Food" and "drink" are not equivalent words for carrying out the experiment you seem to want to perform. But this has nothing to do with whether they are in containers or not.

I want some food.
I want some drink.
I want something to drink. ​

kentix said:

There were

a few

some

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Is it wrong to use "a few" when the speaker wants to say there weren't many bottles/boxes?

Glenfarclas said:

"Food" and "drink" are not equivalent words

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I'm wondering what would be the good example to compare with "drink". Any idea?

meijin said:

Is it wrong to use "a few" when the speaker wants to say there weren't many bottles/boxes?

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I don't think it's wrong but after I typed out the sentence it seemed that "some" was better. In my mind there is not a hugely significant difference in meaning between some and a few, although, again, I think it matters whether you are talking about food or drink.

Speaking of food:
I think this might be why I changed it to "some". Both "a few" and "some" represent an undetermined amount of food but "some" goes better with food than "a few" does.
There were a few platters of food on the table.
There were some platters of food on the table.