student asking question

Why is there no article before "dinner"? I thought it needs article like "have A dinner."

teacher

Native speaker’s answer

Rebecca

There isn't an article before dinner because we do not use articles before meals. We only use articles before meals when there is an adjective placed before it. We use the article "the" before a meal when referring to a specific meal. There isn't an article used here because she is not talking about a particular dinner and she doesn't use an adjective before dinner. Ex: Dinner will be ready in an hour. Ex: Are you ready for lunch? Ex: What would you like for breakfast? Ex: I ate a late lunch. Ex: We had a light breakfast. Ex: She had an early dinner. Ex: The breakfast on the cruise was spectacular! Ex: The lunch we had at the restaurant was disgusting. Ex: The dinner at Hell's Kitchen was amazing.

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