"I want a cup of coffee" vs "I want a coffee"

Question

As far as I'm concerned, the sentence "I want a cup of coffee" sounds natural, but what about "I want a coffee"? Is it correct?

I used Google search to find the number of times both of them are used. I'm in Peru, a Spanish speaking country.

Searching "I want a coffee" -traductor -traduccion -translation shows 2,660,000 results.
Searching "I want a cup of coffee" -traductor -traduccion -translation shows 2,850,000 results.

So it seems that both are used. Could anyone confirm if both are grammatically correct?

This seems like it might be answered by Is the counting nouns such as "a cup of" "a bottle of" virtually dead?. (Note that coffee pretty much always comes in a cup.) — Laurel, Sep 05 '23 at 19:21
I want a coffee = usually, you buy that. If you are at home, you would just say: I want some coffee or a cup of coffee. But the meaning is the same as cup of coffee. — Lambie, Sep 05 '23 at 19:54
@Laurel that question was posted in 2010, data driven statistics may have changed a lot since then. I would like to see an updated assessment because I have grown to dislike and distrust Google's estimates (which appear to be inflated at the best of times) but I do not know what the hard cold facts are. — Mari-Lou A, Sep 19 '23 at 07:40

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 05 '23 at 20:29

2

when one says coffee it is often implied to mean a cup of coffee (Particularly in places where coffee is usually served in cups.)

To avoid ambiguity you can be precise by saying "a cup of coffee".

answered Sep 05 '23 at 20:29

Sam

2

It means 'a serving of coffee', whether they serve it in cups, mugs or whatever. – Kate Bunting Sep 06 '23 at 08:23

1 Answers1