It's a short version of "This is not drinking water", if that helps.

The phrase is just a shortened form of "this is not drinking water", and is therefore correct. In fact, I think it's the most natural phrase to use.

"Do not drink the water" would be a perfectly good alternative. Direct orders certainly do occur on signs in England, e.g. "Do not obstruct the doors", but without the exclamation mark that's usual in German (and which always makes me think the sign is shuoting at me).

"No drinking water" would be short for "there is no drinking water", which may be true, but doesn't explicitly describe the water coming out of the taps. When you suggested this you were probably thinking of "no smoking", but here smoking is a verb (a gerund?) describing what you're not allowed to do, whereas in "no drinking water" the word "drinking" is an adjective describing the water.

Yes, in India there are explicit messages in such places as "This water is NOT suitable for drinking".

Thanks a lot for your answers :)
Learned something new again, I guess.

@nadmari
Now you'll have to find some other way of avoiding boredom - but LEO offers plenty of scope!

The vocabulary-trainers serve quite good for that :)
If there only was one for Spanish...

"Not potable" used to be the term used as far as I can remember.

@Jill: "Not potable" is often used in the U.S. and I find that interesting as I believe that, when confronted with this sign, fully half of the population would think "I wonder why you can't put it in a pot." ;-)

@ FredM

;)))))))
I wonder what would these folks think when they read, "Not suitable"!!!!

;)

There are other examples where you can take the phrase 'for -ing' and turn it into an adjective ending in -ing before the noun.

This water is not for drinking —> This is not drinking water
Are these apples for cooking or for eating? —> Are these cooking or eating apples?

There are also many adjectives in -ing that answer the question 'What kind of?'

baking dish
frying pan
ironing board
washing machine
cleaning agent
sealing wax
polishing cloth
heating/cooling system
fishing pole
sailing ship
chiming clock
singing telegram

Okay, I'll stop, but you get the idea. (-:

Darf ich zusammenfassen:

(This is) not drinking water (richtig) - "das ist nicht Trinkwasser"
(Das ist) kein Trinkwasser (richtig) - "no drinking water"

Das "no" wäre also schlicht ein Germanismus, wenn ich es richtig verstanden habe.

vielleicht eher


(Das ist) kein Trinkwasser = (This is) not drinking water (= Dieses Wasser ist nicht zum Trinken geeignet)
No drinking water = (Es gibt) kein Trinkwasser (= Früher gab es welches, jetzt ist es aus)
No drinking (of) water = Wassertrinken verboten = Es ist nicht gestattet, das Wasser zu trinken

notanative, Deine Antwort find ich ganz einleuchtend. Mein Problem lag auch weniger an der -ing - Form als mehr am Woertchen "not"...

@notanative
Exactly, except that your last example should read
No drinking (the) water = Wassertrinken verboten

As I'm sure you realise, the normal form for this would be "Do not drink the water".

Aha, nadmari. Also vielleicht ...

Q: Is that drinking water? (Is that water for drinking?)
A: No, it's not. (No, it isn't.) (No, it's not drinking water.)

Q: Is there any drinking water?
A: No, there's no drinking water. (No, there isn't any.) (No, there's none.)

HTH. :)