There are several Japanese books teaching Japanese students how to write in English. I found this example in 『英作文参考書の誤りを正す』 (Correcting Errors in English Composition Manuals) by Michio Kawakami and J.D. Monkman.
The authors of this book claim that this sentence is incorrect:
This box of matches is empty.
They note that a “box of matches” is a box containing matches (and not a box made out of matches), hence the sentence should instead be:
This matchbox is empty.
Likewise, an “empty bottle of beer” should instead be an “empty beer bottle.”
Is this actually an error that I should avoid in writing English? If so, is it a grammatical error or something else?
Best Answer
As a native speaker, I would not regard empty box of matches, empty bottle of beer, empty glass of water, or empty tin of sardines to be "wrong". Anyone arguing that I should say instead empty matchbox, empty beer bottle, empty water glass, and empty sardine tin probably wouldn't get in too many more discussions with me, as I'd likely regard them as a pompous bag of wind.
To echo what @Bradd Szonye mentioned in the comments, there's a difference between "grammatically wrong" and "preferred in formal writing." An empty beer bottle may be a better way of saying it, but "grammatically wrong" is overstated.
There are times when we should be very careful in our wording, when it behooves us to be very fussy about such details (for example, when we are writing a resume to compete against 50 or 60 other people for a coveted job, or writing an academic paper that will be read with scrutiny by our peers). Other situations don't require such careful attention to linguistic quirks. I would say that empty box of matches falls squarely under the umbrella of good enough for everyday conversation.