Difference between 'have lunch' and 'have a lunch'?

Question

Let's go have a lunch.

Let's go have lunch.

Is there a difference between these two sentences in terms of what they imply?

Can "have lunch" and "have a lunch" be used interchangeably in any sentence? If not, can you provide some examples?

Does this answer your question? When should I use "to have a dinner" instead of "to have dinner"? Also the dinner vs. dinner and at/in/on -/a/the restaurant. — FumbleFingers, Aug 22 '21 at 17:26
@FumbleFingers The link says 'a dinner' is an event rather than the meal itself. If that is the case, does 'Let's go have a lunch' make a sense? — Xfce4, Aug 22 '21 at 17:45
No, it doesn't usually make much sense to use the article with *lunch. As you can see from this NGram, where Let's have a lunch together* (with article) is too rare to even show on the chart. It's not inherently invalid though... — FumbleFingers, Aug 22 '21 at 17:50
...it would be perfectly natural to include the article in a context like We should have a working lunch* together sometime next week*. — FumbleFingers, Aug 22 '21 at 17:52
@FumbleFingers Yeah, I think it is because that lunch is a special one. — Xfce4, Aug 22 '21 at 17:55
I do not think the other answers are as easy to understand and use as mine. — Lambie, Aug 24 '21 at 13:16

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 22 '21 at 19:16

idioms: have lunch, have breakfast, have tea, have dinner, have supper

idiomatic expression of an eating [ha ha] event: a lunch, a dinner, a tea, a supper

1 Answers1