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In the following sentence

I'm sitting in my chair and waiting for a dinner.

my daughter's teacher crossed out "a". What is the reason/rule here that I am waiting for dinner, but I am waiting for a train?

user_pj
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    Names of meals used with the sense 'the food one normally eats at that time of day' do not take an article. We have breakfast, go out for lunch etc. – Kate Bunting Oct 06 '22 at 12:56
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    You're more likely to be waiting for the train, unless you don't care where it goes or which train it is. – Stuart F Oct 06 '22 at 13:14
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    @StuartF I've heard it both ways with the same intent. We don't often care which train it is because all the trains that come to that station go to the same place. If there are different ones, you might say I'm waiting for the/an F-train. – Barmar Oct 06 '22 at 21:58

3 Answers3

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Dinner is both countable and uncountable. In case there is no adjective, it's treated as uncountable, therefore it should not have a preposition 'a' before it. E.g.

I'm waiting for dinner.

I'm waiting for a tasty dinner.

Source: https://forum.wordreference.com/threads/uncountable-nouns-can-be-countable-when.2262653/

Also when dinner means a formal social occasion, it's countable

They held a dinner to celebrate their company's anniversary.

Source: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/pl/dictionary/english/dinner

user_pj
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Context could be the issue here. Is she sitting at home waiting for dinner - in which case the omission is correct, or on a plane waiting for 'a' dinner of which she could be receiving one of a selection...

user465347
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  • In other words, either dinner or a dinner could have been correct. It’s a shame that children are expected to learn English in this way –  Nov 06 '22 at 22:56
  • @user205876 — I disagree. If you look at the ngram, I mention in my answer, you tell children "waiting for dinner". Later they can meet "waiting for a television dinner", but you have to simplify first. Have you ever taught? – David Mar 06 '23 at 23:16
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There is no rule. The expression

“waiting for dinner”

without the article is just usage which native English speakers imbibe with their mother‘s milk. (Likewise for other meals.)

You can see the relative usage in this Google ngram.

English is easy in that nouns lack genders or declensions. It is difficult in so far as sentence structure and article usage often deviates from the ground rules and preposition choice is a minefield. Learn it and live with it.

David
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