Why Potato silk Sounds Wrong in English

[EN] Grammar breakdown: The phrase "Potato silk" consists of two nouns in sequence without any article (a, an, the) or preposition. In standard English, dish names require either an article ("the shredded potatoes") or a modifier ("shredded potato stir-fry"). The Chinese compound "土豆丝" is a noun-noun modifier structure: 土豆 (potato) modifies 丝 (silk/thread). The calque pattern directly maps Chinese word order (Modifier + Head) to English, but English uses a different syntax: head first, then participle or prepositional phrase (e.g., "shredded potatoes" = Participle + Noun). Additionally, "丝" as a mass noun in Chinese is treated as uncountable, but in English "silk" is an uncountable material, creating a weird mismatch. The lack of pluralization also makes it sound like a single strand of potato silk. [中文] 语法分析：“Potato silk”是两个名词直接并列，没有冠词或介词。标准英语菜名需要冠词（如“the shredded potatoes”）或词组（如“potato shreds”）。中文“土豆丝”是“名词+名词修饰”结构（土豆修饰丝），直接映射到英语时变成“名词+名词”，但英语习惯用“分词+名词”（shredded potatoes）或“名词+介词短语”。此外，中文“丝”作为不可数名词，英语中“silk”也是不可数材料名词，造成了语义冲突——仿佛土豆是原料，silk是成品。缺少复数形式也让人误以为是一根“丝”。