pizza

[belly_ttt]

Len and Joe eat some pizza
Question: 1) Why pizza but not pizzas here?
2) My teacher told me to stress on Joe, but I did stress on Len and pizza because this sentence presents new information/. Could you help me out?

[Soup]

[1] A pizza is a pie; it has slices. 'Some pizza' means slices of the same pizza, not slices of more than one pizza.

[2] Stress subjects, verbs, nouns, and new information:

Ex: LEN and JOE EAT some PIZZA.

[mfwills]

Originally Posted by Soup

[1] A pizza is a pie; it has slices. 'Some pizza' means slices of the same pizza, not slices of more than one pizza.

Is it as simple as that?

"I eat meat." (Singular noun)
Just one kind, or a variety? We might say that "a variety of meats was served," and "I ate several different meats," but in common usage, the singular is used.

"I eat fruit." (Singular noun)
Same thing.

The klinker:
"I eat vegetables," (Plural noun)
Here's where it gets messy. Why are veggies different? Why do I not eat vegetable? By the same token, why do I not eat fruits and meats (not that it would necessarily be wrong to say it that way, just that it isn't)?

As regards the original question, "We went out for pizza" or "We ordered pizza delivered" could, in fact, involve one or more than one pie, possibly as many as the number of people involved, yet we still use the singular. If we go to Pizza Hut and each member of the party orders an individual pan pizza, we still went out for pizza, not pizzas. If our delivery order was for two or more pies, we still ordered pizza, not pizzas.

What I am trying to convey is that there really is no rule. This is one of those usages that simply cannot be pinned down.

[belly_ttt]

Hi mfwills,
so when to use pizzas?

[Anglika]

Originally Posted by belly_ttt

Hi mfwills,
so when to use pizzas?

When you are referring to more than one:

I shall buy five pizzas from the store on my way home.
The pizzas in that restaurant are amazing.
We shall provide seven different pizzas for your guests.

[belly_ttt]

As regards the original question, "We went out for pizza" or "We ordered pizza delivered" could, in fact, involve one or more than one pie, possibly as many as the number of people involved, yet we still use the singular. If we go to Pizza Hut and each member of the party orders an individual pan pizza, we still went out for pizza, not pizzas

Hm, the first bold contracts to that of Anglika's
The second bold, I think if there are 5 of us went downtown and order 5 pizzas yesterday for each of us, I wonder why we call it pizza

[Anglika]

We went out for pizza = we went out for pie/dinner/food. It is a general concept.

You could equally well say "We went out for a pizza" >> We went out for a curry/a beer and still be talking in general terms.