Watching a cooking show a few days ago, the lady that presented it used the expression a half a cup or a half a teaspoon several times during the programme.
I've heard half a [something] used before lots of times, but never with an extra a stuck at the front as in a half a [something]. Is this a typical American expression? Is it slang? Is it a dialect?
Background:
- It was shown on Food Network UK, but obviously was an American show. (Just checked while writing this, it was presented by Paula Deen).
- I'm not a native speaker, never been to the US, but been to the UK countless times, so I wouldn't necessarily know anything that's specific to the US.
Best Answer
"A half a cup" is abbreviated speech for "a half of a cup". (Barrie England argues convincingly against this, but the contraction of of a to a happens enough in casual speech that it is hard to believe that this is not an old instance of this tendency.)
Sometimes of is lazily pronounced a as in "a ton a bricks", and the sequence of a just gets shortened to a.
In England, a "cup of tea" is often abbreviated "a cuppa".