The difference between "have a lunch" and "have lunch"

"A lunch" in your example (in a business context, anyway) would generally mean "a lunch meeting". In other words, "I am not scheduled to meet anyone for ... EnglishLanguage&UsageStackExchangeisaquestionandanswersiteforlinguists,etymologists,andseriousEnglishlanguageenthusiasts.Itonlytakesaminutetosignup. Signuptojointhiscommunity Anybodycanaskaquestion Anybodycananswer Thebestanswersarevotedupandrisetothetop Home Public Questions Tags Users Unanswered Teams StackOverflowforTeams –Collaborateandshareknowledgewithaprivategroup. CreateafreeTeam WhatisTeams? Teams CreatefreeTeam Teams Q&Aforwork Connectandshareknowledgewithinasinglelocationthatisstructuredandeasytosearch. Learnmore Thedifferencebetween"havealunch"and"havelunch" AskQuestion Asked 10years,6monthsago Active 6years,9monthsago Viewed 35ktimes 6 2 Isthereanydifferencebetween Iamnothavingalunchtomorrow. and Iamnothavinglunchtomorrow. Thisisafollowupquestionof:Abouttheuseoffuturetense. grammaticality Share Improvethisquestion Follow editedApr13'17at12:38 CommunityBot 1 askedMay22'11at20:10 StanleyStanley 37111goldbadge55silverbadges1414bronzebadges 1 Lunchismainlycontributedoneatingmealsinafternoonsession. – user66337 Feb19'14at7:40 Addacomment  |  1Answer 1 Active Oldest Votes 13 "Alunch"inyourexample(inabusinesscontext,anyway)wouldgenerallymean"alunchmeeting".Inotherwords,"Iamnotscheduledtomeetanyoneforlunchtomorrow." "Lunch",bycontrast,wouldsimplyrefertothemeal,orthefoodyoueatinthemiddleoftheday.So:"I'mnotgoingtoeatanythingtomorrowbetweenmorningandevening." Share Improvethisanswer Follow answeredMay22'11at20:23 MT_HeadMT_Head 15.1k11goldbadge4141silverbadges6060bronzebadges 10 @MT_Head:Absolutely.You'dwouldn'tjuststayintheofficeandhavealunchonyourown. – FumbleFingers May22'11at20:31 @FumbleFingers-Strangely,thefollowingconstructionsareusedinterchangeably:"Bob,areyoucomingtolunchwithus?"1)"No,Ibroughtlunchfromhome."2)"No,Ibroughtalunchfromhome."3)"No,Ibroughtmylunch." – MT_Head May22'11at20:48 1 @MT_Head:You'repositivelyonfiretoday!Ithinkthosethreearereallyjustmattersofstyle.Idon'tmuchlikethethirdone-butthat'sprobablyjustbecauseIknowBoboftenhasbaloney,whichI'mnotpartialto! – FumbleFingers May22'11at20:59 @MT_Head:+1IthinkIbroughtalunchfromhomereferstoanimplicitlunch[meal],which,thoughpossible,IagreewithFFisabitawkward/informal.Theotheralunchhasthearticlebecauseitreferstoalunch[meeting],asyouhaveshown. – Cerberus_Reinstate_Monica May22'11at21:10 2 How'sthisforaruleofthumb:inasocialcontext,theinclusionof"a"changeslunchfromamealtoanevent(meeting,party);inapersonalcontext,itchangeslunchfromaconcept(food)toaconcreteobject(brownbag,bentobox). – MT_Head May23'11at2:59  |  Show5morecomments Highlyactivequestion.Earn10reputation(notcountingtheassociationbonus)inordertoanswerthisquestion.Thereputationrequirementhelpsprotectthisquestionfromspamandnon-answeractivity. 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