chinese and Japanese food or Chinese food and Japanese food?

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
1

Hi,

we ate Chinese and Japanese food or we ate Chinese food and Japanese food? Do I have to repeat the word food or is it not necessary? If I repeat it, will the sentence have a different meaning of the one I want?

Thanks for the help.

P.S.: Is there a grammatical name for this? In what part of the grammar can I find it?

2

We ate both Chinese and Japanese food.

3

Thanks!

4

***** NOT A TEACHER *****

Hello, Mr. Silva:

If I understand my books correctly, the grammatical term may be ELLIPSIS. That is, native speakers often omit (do not use) all the words in a sentence.

So “We ate Chinese and Japanese food” could be a shorter way to say:

  1. We ate Chinese FOOD and Japanese food.

  2. We ate Chinese FOOD, and WE ATE Japanese food.

James

5

Nr Silva,

Here is more information about the ellipsis to add to James’s excellent answer:
gsbe.co.uk/grammar-ellipsis.html

6

Thanks, Beeesneees.

7

Thank you all.

8

Why do you stress FOOD and WE ATE, James?

9

The capitals indicate the words that could be omitted.