a piece of soap--?

A

andychen

Senior Member
Chinese, Taiwan
Hi, everyone, what do you think of the following?

When you go to the grocery store, please buy ( ) soap for me.
(A) a piece of (B) a (C) a bar of (D) a pair of

I would say "a bar of soap".
But is "a piece of soap" ok? Is it wrong or just less idiomatic?

Thanks in advance for your comments.
 
    • A piece of soap implies a chunk that broke off from a bar. I've always bought bars of soap. :)

    Elisabetta
     
    The thing you actually use to wash yourself, however, is a bar of soap. Soap may be sold in a package containing one or more bars.

    Elisabetta
     
    Where I am from (the USA), we would either say a BAR of soap or SOME soap.
    In English we have "count" nouns and "non-count" nouns.
    I see three dogs (you can count dogs).
    I see some rice left on your plate (you don't count rice).

    If you use BAR, that is a count noun, and you could say A bar.
    If you choose not to use BAR, and just use SOAP, then you should use SOME because it is not a count-noun, so you would not use A, which can mean ONE. Because you can't put a number on non-count nouns, we just say SOME with those words.

    Also:
    Do we have a bar of soap in the bathroom?
    Is there ANY soap in the bathroom?

    I need some water.
    I need A GLASS of water (you can count glasses.)

    Also, use FEWER with nouns you can count, and LESS with NOUNS you don't count.

    I have fewer cans of soup than my neighbor, but he has less wheat in storage than I do.
     
    Kelly B said:
    A quick curious google on "cake of soap" yields results from Australia, mostly.
    Click to expand...
    This is a strange combination for us Aussies.
    We use a cake of soap in the bathroom and a bar of soap in the laundry.
    I have not purchased a bar of soap recently but memory is that the bar of laundry or hard soap is shaped like a gold bar. It is angular and has sharp edges.
    Cakes of bathroom or soft soap are softer in shape with curved sides and blunt edges.

    .,,
     
    nelliot53 said:
    I have also heard "a cake of soap" being used to refer to a bar of soap.

    Greetings.
    Click to expand...

    If you say this in the USA, you will get some very odd looks. And I think that every child whose had his mouth washed out with soap will certainly call you a liar! :)
     
    In British English "a cake of soap" is archaic, but it certainly used to be said here. You will sometimes read it in Victorian novels and possibly up to the 1950s, but I'm not sure about that. I have never heard anyone actually say it in my lifetime (since 1963!)

    We quite often say "a soap" nowadays:

    "I fancy buying a really nice soap instead of the cheap stuff".

    "Did you buy soap?"

    "Did you buy any soap?"

    "A piece of soap" would either be used to mean a bit of a bar of soap ("What's this piece of soap doing on the floor?") or it could mean a piece of soap cut off from a much larger piece in a fancy toiletries shop such as "Lush", which is a chain of shops selling lovely smelling toiletries.


    "Could you buy a bar of soap?"

    "We need soap"

    "Buy some soap"

    "My mum bought me some gorgeous lavender soaps for my birthday"
     
    Jacob said:
    What country was the person talking from? I've never heard a cake of soap in my life. To me a cake of soap would mean a cake made out of soap.
    Click to expand...


    'cake of soap' is well recognised although not so commonly used...

    I personally would just say 'soap' although if I felt the need to use a word before soap it would be bar.

    Hope this helps.
     
    Hi,

    If somebody asked me to buy 'some soap', I would probably ask them 'what do you mean?' They could have wanted soap to wash themselves with, powder/liquid for the washing machine, detergent for the dishwasher, liquid handsoap etc etc. I would normally use the words 'bar of soap' or 'cake of soap' (which I would say is definitely not archaic, I hear it reasonably frequently) and keep 'piece of soap' for when I am cutting my own bar out of a larger chunk in a specialist shop.
     
    It is definately get me or buy me some soap....technically it is a bar of soap but in the spoken language no-one would say can you buy me a bar of soap...we seem to replace "bar of" with "some" a lot...another example of this is a bar of chocolate.....however we do say can you get me a bar of chocolate or we say can you get me some chocolate....you would say get me some chocolate most of the time though
     
    In the USA, we would never say cake of soap. If I were leaving the house, and my wife said, Could you pick up some soap? I would assume she probably meant a pack of soap bars for the bath and shower. If she wanted any other kind of soap, she would tell me what kind, i.e. dishwashing soap, handsoap, etc.
     
    Macymoo said:
    It is definately get me or buy me some soap....technically it is a bar of soap but in the spoken language no-one would say can you buy me a bar of soap...we seem to replace "bar of" with "some" a lot...another example of this is a bar of chocolate.....however we do say can you get me a bar of chocolate or we say can you get me some chocolate....you would say get me some chocolate most of the time though
    Click to expand...
    Actually, in the US it's quite common to say "a chocolate bar" or "a candy bar."

    Similarly, if it were necessarily to emphasize that I wanted only one bar of soap I would find it appropriate to say "Could you buy me a bar of soap?" as opposed to just "some soap." I would say "some soap" if I didn't care how many bars I got.
     
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