ale vs pale ale

ale and pale ale both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
ale	Yes	No	No	No
pale ale	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, pale ale is a hyponym of ale; that is, pale ale is a word with a more specific, narrower meaning than ale:

ale: a general name for beer made with a top fermenting yeast; in some of the United States an ale is (by law) a brew of more than 4% alcohol by volume
pale ale: an amber colored ale brewed with pale malts; similar to bitter but drier and lighter

Other hyponyms of ale include Weissbier, wheat beer, white beer, bitter, Burton, porter's beer, porter, stout.

ale (noun)	pale ale (noun)
a general name for beer made with a top fermenting yeast; in some of the United States an ale is (by law) a brew of more than 4% alcohol by volume	an amber colored ale brewed with pale malts; similar to bitter but drier and lighter