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English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
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  1. This kind of good is free ship/ free-shipping.

  2. What can I get for yoy? Yes, please or I am afraid not.

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Can I get you anything? Yes, a water please. / No, thanks.

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I have a strange feeling about “Yes, a water, please.” I understand that the article before the uncountable noun means a single serving. But I was taught to add a quantifier. Is your usage is common nowadays? Because for me personally, it’s okay. But my teacher considered it as a huge and unforgivable mistake. :sweat_smile:

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I can speak to practice, but not to correctness.
“A water“ is certainly used, though “some water” might be more common.
On the other hand “a” would probably be more common for other drinks such as a Coke, a lemonade or an iced tea.

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Exactly. It all depends on the context. At a restaurant we most certainly use phrases like ‘a coffee’ or ‘a water’ which might the short form of ‘a cup of coffee’ or ‘a glass of water, please’ since strictly grammatically speaking both ‘water’ and ‘coffee’ are uncountable nouns.

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Yes, when we use a tea/coffee for a cup of tea or coffee, there is no reason why we cannot accept a water for a glass of water. Logically, yes, but grammatically, no. We have to accept that there is what may be called ‘spoken grammar’ which plays all these pranks!

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