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| Why do people ask for "beers" when the word "beer" is a noncountable noun? |
Do you stop by the corner store on your way home sometimes and grab "a couple of beers"? In the morning, do you walk into a coffee shop close to work or school and grab "a coffee"? If you've recently studied countable and noncountable nouns, you've learned that neither "beer" nor "coffee" can be counted and, therefore, should not be in the plural or have an indefinite article (a/an) in front of them. However, if this is a grammatical rule, why do so many native speakers break it? You've probably heard your American friends ask the waiter for "five waters."
BREAK THE RULE - not follow it
Well, here's the skinny on this. When people ask for "two beers," what they mean is "two bottles or two glasses of beer"; when they ask for "a water" or "a coffee," they mean "a bottle of water" or "a cup of coffee." You're simply hearing a shortened version of a longer phrase.
THE SKINNY - the information you need (slang)
