He walked to the kitchenette to have (a) late lunch.
He had a piece of toast and a painkiller for (a) late lunch.
Should I use "late lunch" or "a late lunch"? And why?
Grammar – Should It Be ‘Late Lunch’ or ‘A Late Lunch’?
grammarphrase-choice
grammarphrase-choice
He walked to the kitchenette to have (a) late lunch.
He had a piece of toast and a painkiller for (a) late lunch.
Should I use "late lunch" or "a late lunch"? And why?
Best Answer
"Have a late lunch" is correct. The other is incorrect.
There's a set of nouns that are so common in society that we talk about them as general societal concepts, like "I saw it on television", "I was on the phone all afternoon" or "I spent a year in prison". They either use "the" or no article. The main meals, "breakfast", "lunch" and "dinner" are in this category, along with "tea" in the UK and Ireland. "Late lunch" is not one of these general societal concepts, so we have to follow the normal rules of English and use the article "a".