If I say just "where's coffee", does the meaning get changed? Please explain the difference between "where's coffee" and "where's the coffee."

Native speaker’s answer

Rebecca

This is really a question about the article "the". Articles are very important in their use with nouns. We do not always need an article before a noun. A general statement is a statement about a category of items in the world. When making a general statement, we do not use an article at all. Ex: I love dogs.. Ex: I hate vegetables. Both of these sentences are general statements with plurals; dogs is a plural noun and vegetables is a plural noun, and we are not referring to any specific dogs or vegetables. We are referring to the category of dogs and vegetables. So, we do not use an article. However, we have to use "the" when we are talking about a specific noun. In other words, use "the" when we know exactly which item(s) or object(s) we are discussing. In this case we are discussing specific coffee and as such we need to have an article ("the") for the sentence to make sense. Ex: I love the dog you have. Ex: I hate the vegetables in this salad.

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Popular Q&As

04/21

1
What is the meaning of "you know what" here?
"You know what" is an informal expression used to emphasize the statement that comes after it. It doesn't have a particularly special meaning on it's own, and is sometimes used to get someone's attention before speaking. Ex: You know what? I'm hungry. Ex. She's a great student. And you know what, she placed first in our whole school.

2
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3
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4
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