Is it correct to say 小さな氷


> ロケットから出たガスなどが **小さな氷** になって...  
>  The gases that came from the rocket turned into small ice (crystals) and
> ...

Is this sentence complete? I would expect to see "small ice crystals", "small
pieces of ice" etc, rather than just "small ice".

If this is fine can I extend it to other quantities that, in English, would be
regarded as uncountable, e.g. can I say 大きな水 to mean large droplets of water,
or even large amounts of water. Depending on the context I can imagine this
referring to cloud formation or contrasting the size of a lake with the size
of an ocean.




小さな氷 is perfectly valid in Japanese. It refers to small ice particles rather
than a small amount of ice (or 少量の氷). You can also say 大きな氷, 3個の氷 and such
referring to each block of ice. But you cannot usually say 大きな水 and you should
say 多くの水 or たくさんの水 instead.

Distinction of countable and uncountable nouns is not always the same in other
languages. Japanese people who are learning English, including myself, often
make mistakes like "two ices", "three newses", "five breads", etc. See also:
[What is a TV news story
called?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/40159/5010)




小さな氷 is perfectly valid in Japanese. It refers to small ice particles rather
than a small amount of ice (or 少量の氷). You can also say 大きな氷, 3個の氷 and such
referring to each block of ice. But you cannot usually say 大きな水 and you should
say 多くの水 or たくさんの水 instead.

Distinction of countable and uncountable nouns is not always the same in other
languages. Japanese people who are learning English, including myself, often
make mistakes like "two ices", "three newses", "five breads", etc. See also:
[What is a TV news story
called?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/40159/5010)

