Which sentence is correct?
- I had a seafood dinner last night.
- I had seafood dinner last night.
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2'Correct' in what sense? Grammatically, both are correct, and both make sense. – Kris Dec 13 '13 at 07:05
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This is quite a tricky area. Some meals / courses are generally used with an indefinite article, most without, and for some the article is optional.
I had a burger / hot dog / . . . yesterday.
I had soup / cheese / fish and chips / veal escalopes / plum pudding / . . . yesterday.
I had (a) curry / ham salad / pizza / lasagne / . . . yesterday.
Of course, there is the count / mass notion informing choice here, but it's not all that clear cut. It's easier to choose between ice cream / an ice cream where necessary. One could imagine a waiter informing the chef 'a fish and chips and two soups on table 14,' implying portions / servings of and hence countifying. Usage may differ between the US and the UK. 'We had barbecue last night' is apparently OK in Australia, and probably the US, but doesn't sound idiomatic to my UK ears.
In this particular case, I'm with Jim: I had a seafood dinner last night. OR I had seafood for dinner last night.
Edwin Ashworth
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