"a cofee" "a tea"

[keitra]

Can I say, " I had a tea this morning."?

[beejay1124]

course you can

[Claud.Butler]

"I had a cup of tea this morning." might be a little bit better.

[jno]

no... I see what you're getting at, and I don't think they work quite the same way. A coffee is short for a cup of coffee. A tea isn't short for a cup of tea, at least not in the English I speak. I don't know why. But beejay's variety of English may well be different.

I don't think you can say a cocoa or a milk, either. But an Ovaltine may be ok.

[hc4361]

I drunk tea this morning is fine, too.

[joggerjayne]

"I DRANK tea this morning"

... is better.

[jno]

I drank vodka this morning is better still

[beejay1124]

what if you dont have any cups - just mugs

[Catron]

One definition of 'tea' in Chambers dictionary is 'a cup pf tea' - so saying 'I had a tea' is fine, in my opinion. I often say 'a tea' when, in full English, I mean a 'cup of tea'.

[beejay1124]

told youse - na na na nana

[jno]

fair enough. As I said, different people speak in different ways; a tea doesn't sound right to my ears but it may to others. It isn't in my Oxford dictionary, it is in Chambers. It also means marijuana (USA) or coffee (West Indies), apparently.

[TCL-MUMPING]

This is the online Chambers definition

tea noun (teas) 1 a small evergreen tree or shrub, with pointed leathery leaves and white fragrant flowers, cultivated in SE Asia and elsewhere for its leaves.

2 the dried leaves of this plant prepared for sale.

3 a beverage prepared by infusing the dried leaves of this plant with boiling water and which can then be served either hot or iced.

4 in compounds a similar drink made from the leaves or flowers of other plants � peppermint tea.

5 a light afternoon meal at which tea, sandwiches and cakes are served. Also called afternoon tea.

6 Brit a a light cooked meal, usually less substantial than the midday meal, served early in the evening;
b the main evening meal. See also high tea.

ETYMOLOGY: 17c: from Min Chinese te.

[fredpuli47]

To me, 'I had a tea this morning' suggests that I'm a connoisseur of teas ! It suggests that I had one particular kind of tea, out of the many hundreds of types of tea, blends, teas from a particular plantation etc, there are. The listener would expect this statement to be followed by some explanation e.g. ' I had a tea this morning..It was a very light Darjeeling, that I'd not tried before and it was excellent'.

'I had tea' suggests I had tea rather than some other beverage or that I don't normally have tea but did this morning. Which meaning it is depends on how the speaker says it, what they stress.

If all that was meant was the simple observation that I drank a cup of tea, I'd say 'I had a cup of tea' or '. I had .some tea'

[NiceCupOfTea]

Sorry. Just felt compelled to get my name into this discussion for some reason.