Why without the indefinite article?

Hi,

Why no article there?

Soup is (a???) liquid food made of ...

Some nouns, like 'food', can be both countable and uncountable.

eg You need food in order to live.

Meat and vegetables are two different foods.  

In your example, you can omit or include the article, depending on which of these two ways you are thinking.

Best wishes, Clive

Hi,

For the word 'discussion', #1 sounds very wrong. #2 sounds fine, although there are alternatives to the preposition 'on'.

Best wishes, Clive

Hi,

I have difficulty seeing clearly why No. 4 would be wrong. What am I missing?

1. There is discussion  (Good, I think.)

2. There is a discussion. (Good, also, I think.)

3. Have a discussion. (Good, I think.)

4. Have discussion   (Not good. Why??) 

'Discussion' can be used as both count and noncount.

2 and 3 are count, and sound fine.

1 and 4 are noncount. In both cases, 'some discussion' sounds more normal and more OK to me. Perhaps it's because the uncountable word 'discussion' sounds so very general a way of speaking. 1 sounds fairly OK, but it's true that 4 sounds much less OK, at least to me. Perhaps it's really just that 'have discussion' is not a common collocation.

Best wishes, Clive