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Hi, Gleb Hlebov!
I read your message from 07.12.2023 10:13

 AK>> The same situation with steak:
 AK>> "I had steak and kidney pie with chips" but probably is also correct
AK>> "I had a steak and (a) kidney pie with chips"

 GH> I'm afraid you got it wrong here. "Steak & kidney pie" is "nee
 GH> entity".

========
 GH> Steak and kidney pie is a popular British dish. It is a savoury pie
 GH> filled principally with a mixture of diced beef, diced kidney
 GH> (which may be beef, lamb, veal, or pork) and onion. (google)
========

"Steak and kidney pie" _are_ different dishes. "Steak" is just a piece of
meat, IMHO.

 GH> Thus, the first one is the correct usage, the second makes no
 GH> sense.

 AK>> I also suspect that the more the speech is informal the less
 AK>> articles it contains. ;-)

 GH> I don't think there's such a connection, or dependency. But without
 GH> tutors it's getting hard to settle this kind of dispute. :-)

 GH> Again, I could try to explain the usage via some abstractions (this
 GH> is how I believe it works):

 GH> 1.  Mom: texts "Did you eat?"
 GH>     Son: "Yeah sure"
 GH>     M: "What was it"
- "What was it?"
 GH>     S: "Steak and kidney pie with chips"
 GH>     M: "Good"


 GH> 2.  Friend: asks "So last night you went to that restaurant?"
 GH>     Me: "Yeah"
 GH>     F: "How was it?"
 GH>     M: "Great, I had a steak and kidney pie, at last"

Why "at last"?

 GH>     F: "THAT pie? For real? With chips?"
 GH>     M: "Yeah, it's something else! Highly recommended."

-"else"? Maybe "Yeah, it's something! Highly recommended."


I should remark here that "a" before "steak" is also pertain to "kidney pie".

 GH> Do you realize the difference between those two? Both are casual
 GH> dialogue instances that can occur everyday everywhere.

I still don't see why I cannot use "a" in the first example. ;)

Bye, Gleb!
Alexander Koryagin
fido.english_tutor 2023

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