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Rotter Posted 20 years ago
Grammar

Breakfast

I had breakfast with him.

Let us say that I have breakfast with him 2 or three times.

Would you write the following?

I had breakfasts with him.



The reason to ask this question is I watched a program, on Spanish TV, called 'Los desayunos'. This program discusses questions related to politics.

Of course, you could say I had breakfast with him twice.

The question is whether it would be correct to say 'I had breakfasts with him'.

[ By the way, I have a smattering of Spanish too.]
  

Top answer

First, I think it should be I have had breakfast except in special contexts which would specififically call for a past tense, as in: I had breakfast with him three years ago . I have had breakfast s isn't idiomatical, IMO, and this is confirmed by: "I have had breakfast " - 800 hits at Yahoo "I have had breakfast s " - 34 hits at Yahoo (using the quotation marks is very important at Yahoo)

— Marius Hancu

  • First, I think it should be I have had breakfast except in special contexts which would specififically call for a past tense, as in: I had breakfast with him three years ago .
  • I have had breakfast s isn't idiomatical, IMO, and this is confirmed by: "I have had breakfast " - 800 hits at Yahoo "I have had breakfast s " - 34 hits at Yahoo (using the quotation marks is very important at Yahoo)
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10 Answers
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First, I think it should be
I have had breakfast
except in special contexts which would specififically call for a past tense, as in:
I had breakfast with him three years ago.

I have had breakfasts
isn't idiomatical, IMO, and this is
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Thanks Marius

I beg to differ.

I have had breakfast is a sentence of the present perfect tense. [ I may be wrong.]

If you had breakfast yesterday, two days ago or 3 years ago, you wouldn't write it.

If I just finshed breakfast with a person, I would write ' I have had breakfast with him/her.'.
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Hi Rotter,

Keep breakfast in the singular.

"I'm sorry Jim is leaving the department. We really got along well. We had breakfast together before work maybe three or four times. He's a nice guy."

Simple past is fine. You don't need to show it's relationship in time to anything in particular.

Edited: If you were looking at a vacation package, you might see that it
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Additionally, e.g.

1. I had several working breakfasts with him.

where "breakfast" is part of a special phrase.

MrP
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Thanks Grammar Geek

So the words breakfasts, dinners and lunches exist too.

As you mentioned, I will never agree with Google or Yahoo statistics. People write rubbish. In statistics, everything is involved.

I would listen to a native speaker of English. Not Google or Yahoo.
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Mr Pedantic

Would write 'I had several working lunches with him'?
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RotterSo the words breakfasts, dinners and lunches exist too.
Of course they exist and are used correctly in some circumstances.

But see what GG says: keep breakfast in have breakfast mainly in the singular, if you don't want to insist on t
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Rotter I have had breakfast is a sentence of the present perfect tense. [ I may be wrong.]

If you had breakfast yesterday, two days ago or 3 years ago, you wouldn't write it.

No, you're not wrong, the first sentence is present perfect.

Whenever you indicate a specific time in the past (as in your 2nd sentence here), of
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RotterMr Pedantic

Would write 'I had several working lunches with him'?

Hello Rotter

Yes, that would be fine, e.g.

1. I had several working lunches with him, and on every occasion, he tried to avoid paying.

MrP
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RotterMr Pedantic

Would write 'I had several working lunches with him'?

Hello Rotter

Yes, that would be fine, e.g.

1. I had several working lunches with him, and on every occasion, he tried to avoid paying.

MrP
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