[quote=“GuyInTaiwan”]I also don’t think water would be correct in that sense. I would use “some water” or “a bottle of water” instead.
As for pizza, I thought it was okay to count pizzas. I’ve heard some people (perhaps really old fashioned people) call them pizza pies. Pies can definitely be counted.[/quote]
Pizza means pie. Nobody but a complete twallock would say “have some pie pie.”
Have a Coke. Have a beer. Have a pizza. Learn some English as like how it’s spoke.
What are the lyrics in that song?
“When the moon hits your eye,
like a big pizza pie,
that’s amore.”
Or is it actually “piece o’ pie”?
Pizza, like cake, is both uncountable and countable. Uncounted forms: Let’s have cake. Let’s have pizza. The counted forms refer to the entire circle. A cake. A pizza. You can order two large pizzas and a small pizza. And specific wedges or squares cut from the whole circle are counted using a measure word like slice or piece. There’s nothing grammatically incorrect about any of these.
So many grammars on this thread!
I would say ‘a water,’ meaning ‘a bottle of water.’
Pizza, like cake, is both uncountable and countable. Uncounted forms: Let’s have cake. Let’s have pizza. The counted forms refer to the entire circle. A cake. A pizza. You can order two large pizzas and a small pizza. And specific wedges or squares cut from the whole circle are counted using a measure word like slice or piece. There’s nothing grammatically incorrect about any of these.[/quote]
When discussing foods, we learn the convention that, generally, if one or more of the units is likely to constitute a serving, we can discuss the food as a countable noun.
I like grapes, strawberries, hot dogs, apples, bananas, tacos, noodles, perogies, sardines, eggs, and Twinkies.
In each case, the unit will make up a serving or part thereof.
This has a finite minimum, in which the units are so very small as to be served in a practically uncountable mass.
Cereal, popcorn.
Or where the morphology of the food simply disallows counting.
Porridge, polenta, soup, paella, walrus blubber.
Once a food item is so large that a single unit constitutes multiple servings, although the noun remains technically countable, we discuss it as an uncountable when we talk about eating it.
Would you like some watermelon, salmon, pizza, lasagna, papaya, curry (slightly different UK use here, in NA we’d NEVER count curry, but in the UK they do, although you still don’t eat “one”), turkey, chicken, duck, lamb, shark, ham?
AND THEN, when we talk about producing, procuring, purchasing, or preparing them, THEN we use the countable form, as appropriate.
Pick up 2 watermelons, a salmon, 5 pizzas, one and a half lasagnas (tricky, it being a non-English word), a ham, and 6 papayas.
On the farm, my grandma still keeps 10 turkeys, 20 chickens, 15 ducks, 3 lambs, and one big fuckin shark.
And I think it’s pretty much a convention for the last hundred years or so to substitute “a serving of” with “a”, where drinks are concerned.
Whilst, to me, “grab me a water” sounds rather odd, I can see it being used.
A Coke, a beer, a whiskey, a tea, a coffee, all sound fine.
Not only that, he likes them all on the same plate, mashed up with a spoon.
Not only that, he likes them all on the same plate, mashed up with a spoon.[/quote]
With a dash of toothpaste (noncountable), mint sauce (noncountable), and a handful of spiced chicken arseholes (DECIDEDLY countable). :lick:
And another thing, how come people study history, science, art, music and business in college, but some idjits insist upon saying they studied maths. 
Yeah! Why own up to such a ridiculous field of study?! Only idiots study mathematics!
While some idiots don’t study maths but prance about the place gaily thinking the subject is called math. Well, maybe not idiots. Americans. Oh, wait, the two are synonymous, aren’t they?
While some idiots don’t study maths but prance about the place gaily thinking the subject is called math. Well, maybe not idiots. Americans. Oh, wait, the two are synonymous, aren’t they?[/quote]
We are comparing British English to American English. Why don’t people say in America we say this and in England we don’t 
?
Congratulations on having the most dumbest thread ever.
No-one in the Real-World gives a phkuk about grammar anyways.
While some idiots don’t study maths but prance about the place gaily thinking the subject is called math. Well, maybe not idiots. Americans. Oh, wait, the two are synonymous, aren’t they?[/quote]
hahahehehehohoho, a witless remark from sandman. :no-no: If you had written SOME Americans then I would be inclined to agree with you.
Some Americans have no sense of humour.
There. How’s that?
While some idiots don’t study maths but prance about the place gaily thinking the subject is called math. Well, maybe not idiots. Americans. Oh, wait, the two are synonymous, aren’t they?[/quote]
hahahehehehohoho, a witless remark from sandman. :no-no: If you had written SOME Americans then I would be inclined to agree with you.[/quote]
Not entirely witless but slightly caustic.
[quote=“Stray Dog”]Some Americans have no sense of humour.
There. How’s that?[/quote]
Much better.
We English speakers have a quaint trick. We don’t want to waste time on extra syllables, so we can inform listeners that the mass noun in question presents itself in enumerable units by sneaking the numbers or determiners and plural suffixes (when the need arises for them) there.
I want water.
I want a water.
I want two waters.
But you always have to have a rough guess of the units in question. Otherwise, we judge that it’s incoherent:
I want stuff.
*I want a stuff.
*I want two stuffs.
Are you seriously discussing this when one can daily read so called English teachers write “your wrong”, “would of been better…”, “I have a lot of friend’s”, “definately”…
As someone who had to learn English the hard way (and still has to pay attention to avoid mistakes and keep a decent pronunciation) I find some native speakers’ disregard for their own language grammar insulting.
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[quote=“Novaspes”]Are you seriously discussing this when one can daily read so called English teachers write “your wrong”, “would of been better…”, “I have a lot of friend’s”, “definately”…
As someone who had to learn English the hard way (and still has to pay attention to avoid mistakes and keep a decent pronunciation) I find some native speakers’ disregard for their own language grammar insulting.
Sent from my GT-N7100 using Tapatalk 2[/quote]
Some but not all.
The buxibans need higher standards than only whether or not a teacher is popular.