Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[someday]

Sometimes, I wonder whether I have to use "a" or "one" before nouns when I order a coffee or buy any single item. Say, I want to order a tall moca frapchino and a tall caremel moca frapchino, I belive native speakers would say 'a tall moca frapchino and a tall moca caramel frapchino, but for some reaons I feel tempted to say "one--- and one --" feeling akward myself though.
When would native speakers use one insted of "a" before nouns?
If I used "one," would I sound strange at all?

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Usually, the coffee of S' is too strong for me, so I want to dilute it in half a cup of water by saying,
"A regular coffee please, but I would like to weaken it like half coffee and half water." I feel not comfortable with two things here.
One is whether I need to use "like"
two is whether "half coffe and half water" would be okay to use, I feel like I have to use "the other half" for the second one for the gramatical correctness. Any other ideas? Thanks in advance.

[lotus]

Hi someday,

"A" is an indefinite article, meaning it indicates or points to something, but in an unspecific way. A day, for example, could be any day. When you say "one" day, you're trying indicate a specific day.

When we order coffee, we usually say "I would like a tall mocha frappachino and a tall mocha caramel frappachino."

You could say "I would like one tall mocha frappachino and one tall mocha caramel frappachino." It's not wrong, just a little wordy.

It would be more common to use "one" if there is another number involved, such as: "I would like one tall mocha frappachino and two tall mocha caramel frappachinos."

If you want to stress that you are only ordering one, you may use the word "one." Suppose you have a lot friends with you, but you only want to order one coffee for yourself, you would say: "I would like one tall mocha frappachino, please."

For your diluted drink, you could say: "I would like a diluted cup of coffee please. Please make it half coffee and half hot water. Thanks." You don't need to use "like" and you don't need to say "the other half."


--lotus

[lotus]

One last note:

Very often, I've seen people use numbers to order coffee in a coffee house. This is so the servers don't get mixed up. So, if you're with a date and you'd like to order coffee for yourself and your date, you could say:

"I would like one tall mocha frappachino and one tall mocha CARAMEL frappachino, please."

You stress the caramel because it is different.


--lotus