Bottle Water or Bottled Water? Which Is Correct?

A common phrase. But the wrong version is more popular than the correct one. So, which do you normally say whenever you mean water sold in bottles that has, according to Cambridge Dictionary, been treated in order to make it very clean? It could also be water that comes from a special place, for example a spring. ‘Bottle water’ or ‘bottled water’? I wish this were a physical class so that I could immediately have your opinion.

Anyway, the question takes us back to verbal adjectives, which are otherwise called participles. A verbal adjective is an adjective generated from a verb while an adjective itself is a word that describes a noun. Pardon my repetition of the term here. There are many ‘natural’ adjectives like tall, high, beautiful as we have in a tall boy, the high table and a beautiful bird. On the other hand, verbal adjectives include charged, dancing and proven in the contexts: a charged laptop, the dancing girl and proven ability, with the adjectives respectively formed from charge, dance and prove. Here are more examples of verbal adjectives/participles:

He is the owner of the damaged car.

Sylva has been declared wanted over the coup.

The question borders on dangling participles.

It is a wiring problem.

I want to improve my spoken English.

He was seen holding a broken bottle.

In the clauses, damaged, wanted, dangling, wiring, spoken and broken function as verbal adjectives though they were originally verbs. For instance, while ‘damaged’ describes ‘car’,  ‘spoken’ explains the aspect of the English Language the guy wants to sharpen.

Bottled water

Back to the topic question, it ought to have become clearer now that what many refer to as ‘bottle’ water is actually ‘bottled water’. The word ‘bottle’ has to be in past participle form to assert its new verbal adjective class:

We need bottle water for the party. (Wrong)

We need bottled water for the party. (Correct)

The price of bottle water has risen. (Wrong)

The price of bottled water has risen. (Correct)

Canned drink, roasted corn

Similarly, the correct phrases are canned drink (canned Coke, canned Pepsi, canned malt, canned beer etc.), tinned tomato and roasted corn. Not can drink, tin tomato or roast corn:

I asked her to get can fruits. (Wrong)

I asked her to get canned fruits. (Correct)

My grandma doesn’t like tin tomatoes. (Wrong)

My grandma doesn’t like tinned tomatoes. (Correct)

Daddy asked me to buy roast plantain, not roast corn. (Wrong)

Daddy asked me to buy roasted plantain, not roasted corn. (Correct)

Exceptions

In handling verbal adjectives, there are certain expressions you need to watch. First, you must be sure of the participle form of the original verb. Not all past-participle verbs, for instance, end with -d or -ed:

She added grinded pepper to the soup. (Wrong)

She added ground pepper to the soup. (Correct)

Secondly, verbal adjectives are outright not required in certain contexts:

I like toasted bread. (Wrong)

I like toast bread. (Correct)

Tope sells iced water in Oje market. (wrong)

Tope sells ice water in Oje market. (Correct)

The guy is always abusing people because he is not matured. (Werong)

The guy is always abusing people because he is not mature. (Correct)