Difference between 'eat soup hot' and 'eat hot soup'?

Question

Can anyone explain the difference between the following sentences?1. I eat most kinds of soup hot.2. I eat most kinds of hot soup.Earlier today, one of my non-English speaking friends asked me the difference between these sentences, and I couldn't explain it to him. Now, I don't speak English as my mother tongue either, but I've studied it for a long time and I understand the difference. The first sentence means that no matter what kind of soup I eat, I mostly make it hot (boil it or microwave it or whatever) and then eat it. The second one means I eat soup that is hot. It's like if there are 100 kinds of hot soup, I eat and probably enjoy 99 of them. Unless I'm wrong, that is the difference. But what kind of grammar is used here? The placement of the word 'hot' is the only difference and that changes the meanings of those sentences. Can anyone explain this using grammar?

Answer 1

You are correct.

In the first one, "hot" is describing the action of eating the soup. This makes it an adverb, describing the action and therefore can follow the verb.

The second one is describing the soup (a noun) which makes "hot" an adjective, and is in front of the noun.

Assuming you and the person you are talking to already know that you're talking about soup, this is how you would say the sentences.:

When speaking the first sentence, "I eat most kinds of soup hot", the words "most" and "hot" would get the strongest stress.

When speaking the second sentence, "I eat most kinds of hot soup", the words "most" , "hot" and "soup" would get the strongest stresses. "Hot soup' would sound like a compound noun.