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Is there any difference between

Let's go eat Italian food.

and

Let's go eat some Italian food.

I'm not really sure when to add "some" in the sentence.

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    There is no difference, because the first version implies 'some' (obviously you are not going to eat all the Italian food that exists!).
    – Kate Bunting
    Commented Nov 29, 2021 at 9:12
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    @KateBunting I'd say there's a bit of a tonal difference - the first version subjectively seems more direct to me, and more insistent that the food be Italian (maybe because of the stress pattern?). The second also feels more natural.
    – Maciej Stachowski
    Commented Nov 29, 2021 at 9:20
  • @MaciejStachowski 'subjectively', 'feels more natural' - not to me.
    – Michael Harvey
    Commented Nov 29, 2021 at 10:01
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    "Lets go eat..." is US conversational/informal.
    – Michael Harvey
    Commented Nov 29, 2021 at 10:04
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    This is one one of those things that just comes to you when speaking. It can't be taught and there is no rule. I would say Let's go eat Italian food, as a suggestion to someone that I would like to find an Italian restaurant and eat there. If I knew I was going to eat Italian food with a friend later, I might say, Let's go eat some Italian food, when I met them at their door. This would be a greeting, a reminder, and an indication of my excitement to go eat Italian.
    – EllieK
    Commented Nov 29, 2021 at 19:30

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"Food" is a non-count noun. For example, you could say "I like food", and that could mean food in general. As soon as you add a determiner like 'some', then it becomes specific food.

So, "let's eat Italian food" is really just an expression of the cuisine you want to eat. It sounds like a suggestion from which you could go on to choose a specific restaurant to eat in, or choose pizza, pasta, whatever.

Saying "let's eat some Italian food" doesn't sound as idiomatic to me, but it certainly isn't wrong. It sounds like perhaps you have a clearer idea of the food you want to eat. Perhaps you have a restaurant, or a dish in mind.

Also note that "let's go eat..." is chiefly US English. In British English, we would nearly always say "let's go and eat....". We also tend to omit the word 'food' from cuisines, for example, "shall we go for Italian?" or "let's get a Chinese".

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  • I an imagine 'going for an Italian' having a conversational ambiguity absent from 'going for a Chinese' or 'going for an Indian'.
    – Michael Harvey
    Commented Nov 30, 2021 at 18:33

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