Subj : A pie
To   : Gleb Hlebov
From : Alexander Koryagin
Date : Mon Dec 18 2023 14:02:00


Hi, Gleb Hlebov!
I read your message from 15.12.2023 19:38


 GH>>> Steak and kidney pie is a popular British dish. It is a savoury
 GH>>> pie filled principally with a mixture of diced beef, diced kidney
 GH>>> (which may be beef, lamb, veal, or pork) and onion. (googe))
 AK>> "Steak and kidney pie" _are_ different dishes. "Steak" is just a
 AK>> piece of meat, IMHO.

 GH> In theory, yes, it could be that S and KP /are/ different dishes.
 GH> In the real life "anglosphere", not so much.:-)

 GH> If you think about it, it's not a great idea to have both steak and
 GH> pie with diced meat in one meal, to begin with. Sure you can afford
 GH> and have both and add a bag of "Lay's" to that, because why not?
 GH> But in anglo- or british cuisine S&KP is positively one dish (and a
 GH> recipe), as quoted above, plus "chips" aren't crisps like Lay's or
 GH> Estrella but simply a plate of sliced and fried potato,
 GH> like "french fries" in North America. Just indulge yourself and do
 GH> a little bit of research on the matter. Otherwise, how would you
 GH> learn things?

 GH>>> 2.  Friend: asks "So last night you went to that restauran??"
 GH>>>     Me: "Yeah"
 GH>>>     F: "How was it?"
 GH>>>     M: "Great, I had a steak and kidney pie, at last"

 AK>> Why "at last"?

 GH> Because I was going to try it for a while and that day the
 GH> opportunity presented itself.

AH, you have been trying to test it for all your life... :)

<skipped>
 GH>> Do you realize the difference between those two? Both are casual
 GH>> dialogue instances that can occur everyday everywhere.
 AK> I still don't see why I cannot use "a" in the first example.;;)

<skipped>
 GH> The more you learn the more you will see why you should or
 GH> shouldn't use those depending on the variety of context. None of
 GH> us 'tutees' is perfect here, we just keep on learning.

I prefer English classics:
-----Beginning of the citation-----
George suggested meat and fruit pies, cold
meat, tomatoes, fruit, and green stuff.  For drink, we took some
wonderful sticky concoction of Harris's, which you mixed with water and
called lemonade, plenty of tea, and a bottle of whisky, in case, as
George said, we got upset.
----- The end of the citation -----

Could the author omit "a" and say about fruit pie?


Bye, Gleb!
Alexander Koryagin
english_tutor 2023

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