What does this mean: "The soup's off"?

[Cornel]

Hello Torsten! I have a question.
What if the waiter wanted to say that the soup is still on the meniu but there is no soup left at that specific moment?
What would the answer sound like? Wouldn't "over" be correct in that case?
Many thanks!

[Beeesneees]

'The soup's off' means 'the soup is off the menu at the moment (usually because there isn't any left).
Some possible alternatives are:
'We're out of soup.'
'We've run out of soup.'
'We have no soup left.'
'There's no soup left.
'There's no soup.
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[Cornel]

Tks beeesneees. It's quite clear now.

[Puppet]

Hi,

May I know if we can use "it's out" for the soup. If we want to say it's not available for now.

[Beeesneees]

That doesn't sound right. However you could say "We're out of it."
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[Puppet]

Thank you for helping me.

[Genshinken]

We often see " Time is over" " The game is over" ....That is why some people think " The soup is over" correct. But as for " time / game", "to be over" means " to end ". So as for " soup " we cannot say "the soup ends" but " the soup is off". Am i right ?

[Alan]

Hi,

The use of 'off' when referring to meal/dish in a menu suggests that it isn't on the menu any longer and that's why it is off and no longer available.

Alan
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English as a Second Language
You can read my ESL story Present Simple

[Esl_Expert]

[Alan]

Well, no difference really because it also has the same sense for me of tasting odd. The use I was referring to applied to the soup being off the menu. In a way the soup could well be off the menu because the customers have complained that the soup tastes off.

Alan
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English as a Foreign Language
You can read my EFL story Progressive Forms

[Esl_Expert]

Do you mean that the sentence would actually be ambiguous to a British person, Alan?

It would not be ambiguous to an American -- but neither would it be understood as meaning what you initially said it meant.
;-)
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"When I was having that alphabet soup, I never thought that it would pay off." ~ Vanna White

[Beeesneees]

Without clear context then the statement would be ambiguous. If I were in a smart restaurant then I would assume the meaning to be 'off the menu'. If I were in a cafe then I wouldn't be so sure. If someone said it to me at work/home then I would assume that it had gone bad.
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Cheers m' dears!