Would any native speaker say 'Has he lunch/dinner, etc?'

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cftranslate
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Would any native speaker say 'Has he lunch/dinner, etc?'

Post by cftranslate » Wed Oct 27, 2004 2:26 pm

I mean instead of "does he have lunch/dinner?".

Stephen Jones
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Post by Stephen Jones » Wed Oct 27, 2004 3:25 pm

Not in the dynamic sense of eating lucnh or dinner.

It is possible it might be used in the possessive sense. For example you send someone out to get some takeaways'. As a Brit, I would say
"Has he got lunch", but possibly a non-Brit woudl say "has he lunch".

Richard
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Post by Richard » Wed Oct 27, 2004 4:59 pm

An American might ask, "Does he have lunch?"

With lunch as verb, a better alternative might be "Has he lunched?" That sounds silly to me, but lunch can indeed be used as a verb. There is a famous song by Stephen Sondheim with the title "The Ladies Who Lunch".

Likewise, dinner is a noun; the verb is dine. We would ask, "Has he dined?"

Harzer
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Post by Harzer » Wed Oct 27, 2004 11:49 pm

No. The DO + V question form is used here for the act of breakfasting, lunching and dining.

Therefore either "DOES he HAVE breakfast/lunch/dinner?"

or (very formal) ...

"DOES he BREAKFAST/LUNCH/DINE?" Very formal is also:

"DOES he TAKE B/L/D"

The other meals 'brunch', tea' and 'supper' have no verb-form derived from their names: does he brunch/tea/sup?*

Harzer

Stephen Jones
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Post by Stephen Jones » Thu Oct 28, 2004 10:25 am

'Supper' is derived from 'to sup' not vice-versa.

Harzer
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Post by Harzer » Thu Oct 28, 2004 8:03 pm

Whe did you last use the verb 'sup'?

Harzer

Richard
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Post by Richard » Thu Oct 28, 2004 11:16 pm

'sup bro?

metal56
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Re: Would any native speaker say 'Has he lunch/dinner, etc?'

Post by metal56 » Fri Oct 29, 2004 1:11 am

cftranslate wrote:I mean instead of "does he have lunch/dinner?".
Do you mean in the sense of possess?

Paraphrased as "Has he a lunch meal in front of him?"

Is that what you mean?

Abbie: Has he lunch?

Betty: Yes, he has. He's eating it right at this moment.

cftranslate
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Post by cftranslate » Fri Nov 05, 2004 9:58 pm

I have noticed that in these forum many people whose answers I thank anyway tend to find complex meanings or unsual examples. Well, it has the pompous name 'Applied Linguistics, after all, though I unsuccessfully suggested a change to 'Usage/Grammar Forum some time ago....

What I mean is if in simple question ('dynamic' as somebody said above) such as:

What time do you have lunch every day?

"What time have you lunch every day? or BrE What time has he got lunch every day?" ... are often heard said by native speakers.

They sounded strange to me and just needed confirmation.

woodcutter
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Post by woodcutter » Sat Nov 06, 2004 1:04 am

It was your own fault Cftranslate, because you asked a very ill-formed question.
After all, everybody has lunch, except during Ramadan. Metal did his best to answer the question, and asked you to clarify your meaning, and now you are asking about something which is rather different from the sense you implied before, but still not asking in a very clear manner. The sentences you claim are often heard are not heard at all, in my view. You are also attributing nonsensical sentences to us poor British, as people often do.

Also, I suppose we all want to learn something ourselves, not just provide a free teaching service. Therefore, answers may be complex.

JuanTwoThree
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Post by JuanTwoThree » Sat Nov 06, 2004 9:47 am

"What time have you lunch?" NO (I can't agree that it's often heard)

"What time do you have lunch?" YES

Two people looking at the day's rota, in a department store:

"I've got a coffee break at 10.45, I see"

"What time have you got lunch?"


It sounds like an imposition, with a different meaning from "do you have"

It's true that the odd main verb question or negative "have" slips out: "We haven't time" "Have you any idea ........? but perhaps we should maintain the convenient fiction that it doesn't exist for EFL/ESL purposes. Maybe Am E is different, I don't know (I agree with Woodcutter that there seems to be a lot of misinformation about Br E (apparently we never say taxi but always say cab, unless it's the other way round)).

cftranslate
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Post by cftranslate » Sat Nov 06, 2004 1:31 pm

Woodcutter, the sense of my question was pretty clear from the beginning.

The rule is, if there's one, is that HAVE (=possess) in BrE is used as an auxiliary in questions and often with GOT while in AmE Do/Did/Will are used to form questions and negatives AND in both BrE and AmE HAVE is used as any other regular verb in sentences like HAVE LUNCH/DINNER/A SHAVE.

I usually ask in this forum for native-speakers advice, what they hear.

As for your comments about a free 'teaching service' I've no idea what you are talking about and I insist that some of the answers in this forum (maybe because of the heading of the forum itself) tend to be too analytical, paying too much attention to linguistic explanations of exceptions or rare uses rather than going to the point of the simple questions asked.

Are you Woodcutter one of those who turns simple questions into elaborate linguistic dissertations? Again Thanks for all your answers, anyway.

woodcutter
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Post by woodcutter » Sun Nov 07, 2004 12:30 am

Well, Cf, you know it's just that I like this forum, because there is a balance of grammar questions, theory and even a little wit and personality. You can find the kind of thing you want at www.englishforums.com but due to the less colourful nature of the conversation, not so many people seem to post. The same is true of the other parts of Dave's cafe.

I am not generally well read enough to start heavy theoretical discussions, and I'm a hypocrite because I told poor old hamster off for writing an overly complex answer just recently.

As to the matter in hand, your first question implied 'has' as in possession.
It was unclear. That was why Metal was talking about possession.

Although as Juan says, "what time has he got lunch" is possible, I do not think that it can be extended to "what time has he got lunch every day", in Britain or elsewhere.

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