I know that "water" or "a glass(cup) of water" is the right expression.
But I'm wondering.
If someone says to you that "Give me a water, please.", what would you think that means?
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Sign up to join this communityI know that "water" or "a glass(cup) of water" is the right expression.
But I'm wondering.
If someone says to you that "Give me a water, please.", what would you think that means?
In your example, "a water" probably means a single serving of water.
If we use the indefinite article a with a normally uncountable noun, we usually do it to mean one of two things:
A certain kind of that noun.
A single instance or serving of that noun, such as a packaged container of it from a shop or a serving at a restaurant.
Here's an example for each case, respectively:
In Mexico I tasted a water unlike any I'd drunk before.
(To clarify, that's the past perfect used to mean that when I drank it, I had never drunk a water like that before.)
I was thirsty so I stopped at a store and bought a water.
You might also hear something like this:
I'm thirsty. I think I'll buy some juice. How much is a juice?
Again, that's referring to a single packaged juice, usually a single serving. If I'm talking about buying a large container of juice to keep in my fridge, I'll probably just refer to it as "juice" or "some juice". But if I were telling my wife (if I had one) to buy two large containers of juice, I might say: "When you're at the store, buy two juices." I could say "some juice", but it's understood when I say "two" that I want to units/containers, and this is using "juice" in a countable way.