This argument has come up at work, and I actually found it pretty interesting.
My colleague is arguing that you might say "a quarter of a pizza", whereas you'd just say "half of a pizza" rather than "a half of a pizza".
So my question is:
- Which is correct: "a half of an [x]", "half of an [x]", or both?
- Is there a difference in how we treat the word "half" as opposed to "quarter" or other fractions?
- If so, why?
Hopefully this isn't a duplicate - there are some similar questions on the site, but nothing that addresses the first "a" used.