Which one is???

[english001]

Kindly explain to me the difference between the following:

1. You had A DINNER with your family
2. you had DINNER with your family


Is there any mistakes on the sentences above??

[engee30]

Originally Posted by english001

Kindly explain to me the difference between the following:

1. You had A DINNER with your family
2. you had DINNER with your family


Is there any mistakes on the sentences above??

Normally, you would say, I had dinner with my family; but if the dinner was specific, you could as well say, I had a lovely dinner with my family.

[english001]

Thanx for the response!!

Let's go back to my Question, is any mistakes or grammatical errors therein??

and one more thing, does it mean that if we want to be more specific we just have to put an ADJECTIVE as in, "I had a lovely dinner with my family" does it makes sense??

tnx!!

[engee30]

Originally Posted by english001

Thanx for the response!!

Let's go back to my Question, is any mistakes or grammatical errors therein??

Well, I wouldn't say that using an indefinite article with dinner not being preceded by an adjective, is a mistake, but, as I wrote in my previous post, dinner, like other meals, prefers the so-called zero article to be used with it.

Originally Posted by english001

and one more thing, does it mean that if we want to be more specific we just have to put an ADJECTIVE as in, "I had a lovely dinner with my family" does it makes sense??
tnx!!

Yes, you use an adjective to be more specific about meals; though you can use the + (adjective) + meal, if you want to talk about a particular meal that you have had:

I had (a formal) dinner with Charles Dickenson, my ex-manager. The (formal) dinner was really unconventional.

[english001]

Well, all I can say is THANK YOU SO MUCH for your time in responding to my concern on grammar. More power and have a NICE day!!!