This coffe is better than the one I had yesterday.

[optimistic pessimist]

Do you say ,"This coffee is better than the one I had yesterday"?

I think "one" as a pronoun only refers to a countable noun. In the sentence above, however, it looks like "one" refers to "coffee", which is an uncountable noun.

Thank you.

OP

 

[Gillnetter]

Do you say ,"This coffee is better than the one I had yesterday"?

I think "one" as a pronoun only refers to a countable noun. In the sentence above, however, it looks like "one" refers to "coffee", which is an uncountable noun.

Thank you.

OP

This could be written "This coffee is better than the coffee I had yesterday". You are merely pointing to a specific coffee - that particular coffee you drank in the past. You could also write something like this "This ocean is deeper than the one I saw last week".

 

[emsr2d2]

"Coffee" is not always an uncountable noun. When we use it to mean "a cup of coffee" (which we frequently do), it's countable.

Do you want a coffee?
No thanks, I just had one.

What did you do this morning?
I went for a coffee with a friend, then went to the gym.

 

[Gillnetter]

"Coffee" is not always an uncountable noun. When we use it to mean "a cup of coffee" (which we frequently do), it's countable.

Do you want a coffee?
No thanks, I just had one.

What did you do this morning?
I went for a coffee with a friend, then went to the gym.

It might be that this is just the west coast way but I would not ask if you want a coffee. It would either be a cup of coffee or some coffee. In a similar way, "I went for coffee with a friend...".

 

[Raymott]

It might be that this is just the west coast way but I would not ask if you want a coffee. It would either be a cup of coffee or some coffee. In a similar way, "I went for coffee with a friend...".

Strange, I thought "Would you like a coffee?" was used everywhere. It's certainly ubiquitous in AusE. Note that I'm not saying everyone phrases it that way.
[h=2][/h]

 

[Gillnetter]

Strange, I thought "Would you like a coffee?" was used everywhere. It's certainly ubiquitous in AusE. Note that I'm not saying everyone phrases it that way.

I do hear "Would you like a coffee?", but generally it comes from some of my Mexican ESL students. In Spanish the term is ¿Quiere café? This translates to, "Do you want coffee"? When I ask them why they added an "a" they don't seem to know. The don't say "Quiere una (a) cafe" in Spanish.

 

[MikeNewYork]

I do hear "Would you like a coffee?", but generally it comes from some of my Mexican ESL students. In Spanish the term is ¿Quiere café? This translates to, "Do you want coffee"? When I ask them why they added an "a" they don't seem to know. The don't say "Quiere una (a) cafe" in Spanish.

This has happened with many mass nouns (of the food and drink variety) through the years.

 

[emsr2d2]

The article isn't obligatory. All the following are acceptable:

Do you want coffee?
Do you want some coffee?
Do you want a coffee?
Do you want a cup of coffee?

 

[Raymott]

Do you want a caffeinated imbibatory experience?

 

[MikeNewYork]

Do you want a caffeinated imbibatory experience?

I'd rather have a shot of Jack Daniel's. :drinking:

 

[Barb_D]

This American has no problem with the inclusion of the article. Let's get a coffee before work some time.
This American has no problem with the omission of the article. I asked you if you wanted to get coffee, not share pancakes at my breakfast table.