help please!is it grammatically correct to say little kitten or small puppy?

Question

in my language it is not correct to say little kitten because when you say kitten it implicates [kitten] that it is little. do you have that rule in english?

Answer 1

There is no rule about that, though it might be considered redundant in some situations. Some puppies can be quite large, so to say "a small puppy" could just mean "small in comparison to what we usually think when we think 'puppy'".

English is notorious for redundancies. For example it is quite common to hear phrases such as "future plans", "killed him dead", "hot water heater", "safe haven", "past history", "free gift", "added bonus", etc. English is probably not as restrictive about such usages as your language may be.

Answer 2

You would use the term "little kitten" to distinguish from one that is getting bigger, but still not really a cat. Same with puppy; a really little doggie, as compared with a puppy that might be mistaken for a dog.

Since different breeds of cats and dogs have different sizes at birth, it could also be small puppy because it's a small breed, as compared with large puppy because it's a large breed, even if they are the same age. Same with cats, except the extreme sizes are just wild cats, not house pets. A large kitten might in fact be a lion or tiger cub. (But you see, we are not consistent, because it is called a cub, not a kitten.)

English is a very, very difficult language to learn because it does not follow a consistent pattern. The good news is that we have all gotten used to understanding even really poor English.

Answer 3

The concept of little kitten is not one of two diminutives - yes a kitten is the non-mature equivalent of a cat, but I see no reason for it to be incorrect to use little and kitten together. Consider the opposite - lions, tigers etc. are all "big cats". Little has a comparative meaning - it implies that the kitten is smaller than normal. If kitten, however meant "little cat" little kitten might seem like a tautology...

Answer 4

I don't think there is any formal rule against it, but kitten implies a baby cat, which is generally "little". But there could be two kittens in the room, one bigger than the other: to identify the smaller one, I think it would be just fine to say, "the little kitten."

Answer 5

You would only use the word 'little' to describe a kitten or puppy if they are small in comparison to the normal size of that breed of animal. You will see people throw that in sentences anyway because we overuse words. It's not correct, but it isn't odd.