[Grammar] Articles: I ate (a) pizza for lunch

[naweewra]

Hello,

Someone has once explained to me that when talking about something you eat (as in I like eating pizza), "pizza" is uncountable. But if you think of the whole pizza (as in I ordered 6 pizzas for the party), then "pizza" can be counted. But some pizza places have individual pizzas for 1 person. So you can actually finish one whole pizza. In this case, can we say:

I had a pizza for lunch.
(as opposed to "I had a hamburger for lunch.")

or do we need something like "whole" to emphasize the fact that an entire pizza was eaten?

I ate a whole pizza for lunch by myself.

Thank you.

Nawee

 

[billmcd]

Hello,

Someone has once explained to me that when talking about something you eat (as in I like eating pizza), "pizza" is uncountable. But if you think of the whole pizza (as in I ordered 6 pizzas for the party), then "pizza" can be counted. But some pizza places have individual pizzas for 1 person. So you can actually finish one whole pizza. In this case, can we say:

I had a pizza for lunch.
(as opposed to "I had a hamburger for lunch.")

or do we need something like "whole" to emphasize the fact that an entire pizza was eaten?

I ate a whole pizza for lunch by myself.

Thank you.

Nawee

If you told me that you had/ate "a pizza" for lunch I would believe that you ate an entire pizza. But if you said that you ate/had "pizza" (no article), I would believe that you had something less than an entire pizza. And if you said that you ate/had "a whole pizza" , I would believe that you intended to emphasize the fact that you ate the entire pie.

 

[charliedeut]

If you told me that you had/ate "a pizza" for lunch I would believe that you ate an entire pizza. But if you said that you ate/had "pizza" (no article), I would believe that you had something less than an entire pizza. And if you said that you ate/had "a whole pizza" , I would believe that you intended to emphasize the fact that you ate the entire pie.

May I add something here?

Maybe I got this wrong, but I feel that if you say "I ate/had a whole pizza" you imply that a) it was large and b) you usually eat less than that, and the whole pizza is an exception.

charliedeut

 

[Rover_KE]

'A whole pizza' is meaningless; they come in so many different sizes.

If you told me that you'd had pizza for lunch that would be enough information for me. I really wouldn't care whether you'd had a small slice or a whole 16" job.

Rover