0.2l 0.33l 0.5l 0.8l 1l beer - how to pronounce?

[WonderMary]

I'm feeling really stupid to ask such things, but yesterday my friend and I were sitting at the pub, were speaking English and were wondering how to say something like that "I drank a 0.33l beer yesterday". I thought, that we could say "I drank 2 beers yesterday" but it's not very accurate and don't specify how much beer you exactly have drank ;-)


We has a similar discussion about beer with my another friend, but there was discussion about beer measures in German. Luckily, that one German-speaking colleague helped us that time. Hope, English natives know better such things


So any help is appreciated.

 

[Rover_KE]

WonderMary, please don't use smileys to replace standard punctuation marks. Thank you.

I don't think you'll hear much talk about centilitres in American bars, either. North Americans in general are not fond of the metric system.

 

[konungursvia]

Nowadays, we use capital L for litres. You say them either as "zero point two litres, zero point three three litres, zero point five litres..." or ".... zero point thirty-three litres"...

 

[konungursvia]

WonderMary, please don't use smileys to replace standard punctuation marks. Thank you.

I don't think you'll hear much talk about centilitres in American bars, either. North Americans in general are not fond of the metric system.

Canadians and Mexicans are.....

 

[Tdol]

"I drank a 0.33l beer yesterday"

I'd say a third of a litre for that. However, like Piscean, I'd be more likely to convert it very roughly into pints or halves.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

I'm feeling really stupid to ask such things, but yesterday my friend and I were sitting at the pub. We were speaking English and were wondering how to say something like: "I drank a 0.33l beer yesterday". I thought [no comma] that we could say "I drank 2 beers yesterday", but it's not very accurate and doesn't specify exactly how much beer you drank.


We has a similar discussion about beer with my another friend, but that was discussion about beer measures in German. Luckily, that one German-speaking colleague helped us that time. I hope English natives know such things better.


So any help is appreciated.

Speaking strictly as an American, I find the whole conversation totally incomprehensible. How can your friend know that it was .331 beer? And why would anyone care? We might say "I drank half a beer" or "I drank less than one beer" or maybe - maybe - "I drank a third of a beer." But "0.331 beer"? What could possibly be a less natural barroom remark?

So the answer, I guess, is that it would sound crazy to us. We save that kind of precision for truly technical discussions. (Which we also enjoy!) It's just not ordinary conversation. Ever!

 

[GoesStation]

0.33 liters is one of the sizes bottled beer comes in in Europe. It's a little less than 12 US fluid ounces. I imagine there's a common term for that size bottle in countries where they're normal.

When I'm in France, I get a kick out of ordering a 250 ml carafe of wine because it's called a quart in French, meaning a quarter of a liter. Imagine ordering a quart of wine in an American café!

 

[Tdol]

Here in Laos, beer mostly comes in a third of a litre (barely adequate) bottles and two-thirds (that's more like it). :cheers:

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

0.33 liters is one of the sizes bottled beer comes in in Europe. It's a little less than 12 US fluid ounces. I imagine there's a common term for that size bottle in countries where they're normal. . . .

No doubt!

I know what a liter is. And I know that .33 (or, more precisely, .333) of anything is about a third, which at least makes sense, although we'd say "a third of a liter" rather than ".33 beer," which would sound like near-beer, which is a type of beer, not a quantity. (I'm explaining that for non-Americans reading this. I know you already know that.)

But the post says "0.331" twice. The idea of measuring the beer you drink to the milliliter just struck me as Lance Armstrong-ridiculous.

So - I guess there are bottles or cans that hold slightly less than a third of a liter, like those mini-cans that were popular here in the '70s. In a big brewery, shaving .002 liters off every beer must add up to some major cost cutting.

Now I know!

 

[SoothingDave]

That was a lowercase L. 0.33 l.

In any event, yes it is not required to be that precise when talking about beer.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

The biggest beer glasses in the US are pints - about half a liter. The biggest bottles are called growlers, which are half a gallon or so - about two liters. Next down is a forty-ounce bottle, called a forty - about a liter and a half. Then come quarts - about a liter - which are just called quarts. Then come sixteen-ounce cans - about half a liter called pounders or tall-boys. Most beer bottles are twelve ounces - about a third of a liter, like the .33 liter bottles used elsewhere.

You now know everything you need to know to buy a beer in the U.S. Come on over!

 

[emsr2d2]

After all that beer, it's no wonder we're all drifting. ;-)

 

[GoesStation]

Quite. To continue the gentle float down this beer stream, let me just add that the biggest beer glasses in American bars are Imperial pints of twenty US fluid ounces, 25% bigger than the puny US pints we use for everything else.

 

[SoothingDave]

Many of the chain restaurants use a 22 US oz. glass as the "big beer."

There is one in particular that features attractive young ladies as waitresses that calls theirs the "man size" and the "little girl size."

I don't imagine many of the clientele goes for the little girl size.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

That was a lowercase L. 0.33 l. . . .

Oh! NOW you tell me! A space would've been nice. Possibly wrong, but nice.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

We seem to be drifting gently away from the original question.

Question?

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

Oh. Yeah. THAT question. In the US:


- If it's a third-of-a-liter bottle we would say something like, "I drank a beer," "I had a beer," or "I drank a bottle of beer."

- If we're emphasizing how many beers you drank, we'd say "I drank one beer."

- If it's a half-liter can, we'd say, "I drank a tall-boy" or "I drank a pounder."

- If it's a half-liter glass at a bar or beer pub, we'd say, "I drank a pint" or "I drank a pint of beer."

- If it's a liter bottle, we'd say, "I drank a quart of beer."

- If it's a one-and-a-half liter bottle, we'd say, "I drank a forty."

- If it's a two-liter bottle, we'd say, "I drank a growler" (if we're in shape to say anything).

- If we drank it slowly to make it last, we'd say we nursed it.

- If we drank it all at once, we'd say we chugged it.


Now excuse me while I go track down one of those imperial pints! . . .

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

After all that beer, it's no wonder we're all drifting. ;-)

If you get the drift, I'll get the draught.