Make the dinner

[Rachel Adams]

In my book English File by Christina Coenig I often see examples with the definite article before ''dinner'' even when they are not speaking about a specific ''dinner/breakfast/luch/meal'' and In English Grammar in Context bySimon Clark, in one of the exercises I read: ''I always cook the dinner but you don't.''
Most books say the definite article is used only if it's a specific ''dinner/lunch/meal/supper''.

 

[emsr2d2]

In my book English File by Christina Coenig

Every version of that book I can find gives her name as Christina Latham-Koenig. You can't omit the first half of her surname. It's a double-barrelled surname, so both halves are important.

 

[Raymott]

It can be seen to be a specific meal. It's the evening meal - the specific meal that they all eat at night. "I always cook the evening meal" not "I always cook evening meal".
But even with a specific meal, "I cooked dinner last night", this doesn't always require "the".

 

[Yankee]

Context, as always, is important. In your quote the use of "the" could refer to the fact that the discussion was about dinner versus lunch. It would be optional if simply stating that the speaker was the one who did the cooking.

 

[Rachel Adams]

It can be seen to be a specific meal. It's the evening meal - the specific meal that they all eat at night. "I always cook the evening meal" not "I always cook evening meal".
But even with a specific meal, "I cooked dinner last night", this doesn't always require "the".

Do you mean adding "evening" makes it specific?

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

Do you mean adding "evening" makes it specific?

Yes, it tells you which meal.

You can say the meal, the evening meal, a meal, or an evening meal. All require articles.

Meal names—breakfast, brunch, lunch, dinner, supper—don't always need articles.