Have dinner means to eat the main meal of the day, usually in the evening: We usually have dinner at seven. This phrase usually has no article: a dinner on its own means a formal dinner, an event with guests.
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have dinner (at + time/place); have dinner with + person; have a + adjective + dinner; make/cook dinner
- We usually have dinner at seven, after the kids finish their homework.
- I'm having dinner with some old university friends on Friday.
- On the last night of the trip, we had a lovely dinner by the sea.
What changed
First versionWe had a dinner at a small café near the station.
RevisionWe had dinner at a small café near the station.
Meal names (breakfast, lunch, dinner) take no article in phrases like this: have dinner, have lunch. A dinner usually means a formal meal: The company holds a dinner for its partners. The article comes back when there's a description before dinner: We had a lovely dinner. The corrected version simply drops a.
Have dinner is to eat it, while make dinner or cook dinner is to prepare it: I'll make dinner, and we can have dinner at eight. When you mean preparing a meal, the verb is make, not have.
Your turn
We were hungry after the film, so we ___ dinner at an Italian restaurant.
Show the answer
had — At a restaurant you eat dinner, you don't cook it, so it's had. Made dinner means cooked dinner, which is what you say about cooking in your own kitchen.
Describe the last time you had dinner out. Say where you ate and who with.
Last Saturday I had dinner with my sister at a new Georgian restaurant near our office.
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