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Suppose you want to ask your boss to give you more time. Is it correct and idiomatic to say
Would you please give me an additional time?
I know that I can say "additional time" without the article. However, I am wondering would it come off as if I am implying a period time? i.e.,
Something like the deletion structures.
No, that's not correct or idiomatic. The way to say that is
"Would you please give me more time?" or
"Would you please give me additional time?"
When you use the article "an", you are talking about something countable, such as
"an additional period of time" or
"an additional opportunity" or
"a chance".
‘An additional time’ is not grammatically correct, because the noun ‘time’ is uncountable, so you can’t say ‘a time’. It’s uncountable because — funnily enough — it can’t be counted; you can’t have ‘one time’, or ‘two times’. While you can say ‘this one time...’, you can’t hold a ‘time’ in your hand; it’s abstract. This makes it an uncountable noun.
Better would be ‘some more time’, as in
Could you please give me some more time?
or to say how much time you need, as in
Could you please give me another day/hour/minute?
or
Could you please give me one/two/three more day/s?
Hope that helps!
