一、不用冠詞的場合

在通常情況下，表示一日三餐的 breakfast, lunch, supper前不用冠詞。如：

Breakfast is served until 9 am. 早餐一直供應到上午9點。

Can you manage lunch on Tuesday? 你星期二能來吃午飯嗎?

Have you finished supper already? It’s only 5 o’clock! 你已經吃過晚飯了? 現在才5點鐘啊!

A snack in the afternoon bridges the gap between lunch and supper. 在午餐和晚餐之間，下午吃些點心補充一下。

Mother said lunch was ready and there was a mad dash for the table. 母親說午飯做好了, 大家一下子都向飯桌奔去。

注：不連用冠詞的用法尤其注意以下搭配：have breakfast (lunch, supper), after breakfast (lunch, supper), at breakfast (lunch, supper), before breakfast (lunch, supper), during breakfast (lunch, supper), for breakfast (lunch, supper), over breakfast (lunch, supper), since breakfast (lunch, supper), without breakfast (lunch, supper)。如：

They were having breakfast when I arrived. 我到達時，他們正在用早餐。

We got off immediately after breakfast. 我們吃完早餐就動身了。

Please make your beds before breakfast. 請在早飯前把床鋪好。

It happened at [during] lunch. 此事發生在吃午飯的時候。

I nearly always go home for lunch. 我差不多總是回家吃午飯。

Do you want a boiled egg for breakfast? 你早飯要吃煮雞蛋嗎?

She scanned the newspaper over breakfast. 她吃著早飯把報紙大略看了一遍。

I haven’t eaten since breakfast. 我吃了早飯后到現在還什么都沒吃呢。

I had to go without breakfast this morning as I was in a hurry. 我今早很匆忙, 只好不吃早飯了。

二、用定冠詞的場合

雖然在通常情況下，“三餐飯”前不用冠詞，但是若要特指某一頓早餐、中餐或晚餐，則可在其前加定冠詞。如：

The supper is well cooked. 晚飯做得很好。

Thank you for the breakfast. 謝謝你的這頓早餐。

注：表特指時，除可用定冠詞修飾外，有時可用指示代詞或物主代詞等的修飾。如：

After that breakfast, I never saw her again. 吃了那頓早餐后，我就再沒有看到過她。

Why don’t you go for a walk? It’ll give you an appetite for your lunch. 你怎么不出去散散步? 散散步午飯時就有食欲了。