Favourite fruit

Question

Hi, can you tell me which is correct? why?Thank you.

My favourite fruit is the strawberry (strawberry, a strawberry, strawberries)

I had vegetable (vegetables) for lunch.
I had tomato (a tomato, tomatoes) for linch

Dulu12 · Accepted Answer

I think the correct one is :

My favourite fruit is strawberry.
I had vegetable for lunch.

Here strawberry/vegatable mean some kind of food.For the last sentence you can use any one , the sentence will have different meaning as well.

Fenerbahçeli · Answer

My favourite fruit is strawberry (true)

you cant use "the" and "s"

I had vegetable for lunch (true)

you cant use "the" and "s" either

Because vegetable is uncountable.

Paco2004 · Answer

Hello Guest

I'm myself a learner of English and I'm afraid I'm not qualified to advise you. But allow me to write a tip I have learned in school.

Your question is: "which one is better "a/an X" or "Xs" or simple "X" for food stuff?". One convenient way for the choice is to guess the quantity you would usually eat at a time.

My favourite fruit is the strawberry (strawberry, a strawberry, strawberries)

Do you eat only one strawberry at meal? Probably no. I guess you would eat more than several strawberries. So I think it sounds more natural to say :"My favorite fruit is strawberries." The noun "strawberry" is countable and so I would feel odd if I hear "My favorite fruit is strawberry".

I had vegetable (vegetables) for lunch.

"Vegetable" is a countable (a/an X or Xs) as well as a collective noun (only X). So in this case you can choose either. If I hear "I had vegetables for lunch", I would think you ate various kinds of vegetable.

I had tomato (a tomato, tomatoes) for lunch

In this case all the three are possible. If I hear "I had tomato for lunch", I would imagine you ate a tomato or more that were cut beforehand into pieces. If I hear "I had a tomato for lunch", I would think you ate a whole tomato of a relatively large size. If I hear "I had tomatoes for lunch", I would imagine you ate several tomatoes of small sizes.

You can get some useful information on this subject here: [url="http://www.onestopenglish.com/ProfessionalSupport/ask/vocabulary_thornbury_concord.htm"]Scot Thornbury: An Apple or Apples[/url]

I hope teachers or other native speakers would give better comments.

paco

Guest · Answer

Thank you all very much for helping me.

Favourite fruit

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