Is "I can have cheeseburger?" really grammatically correct? [closed]

As I was looking for a grammar and style plugin for a word processor to help catch my grammar and style errors. I found LanguageTool. On that page I typed the phrase "I can has cheeseburger?". The correction it made was from has to have.

Is the phrase "I can have cheeseburger?" correct or is this not a good tool to use?

Solution 1:

"I can have cheeseburger" while a little odd could potentially be grammatically correct. The question is whether "cheeseburger" is uncountable or not. In most cases it would be countable, and consequently "I can have a cheeseburger" would be appropriate.

However, one could certainly imagine this discussion:

Me: You have a restricted diet, what protein can you have?
You: I can have fish.
Me: And beef?
You: Yes, even with dairy; I can have cheeseburger.

This is certainly a little contrived. For sure the "I can have fish" is perfectly acceptable, since fish can be either countable or uncountable. Whether cheeseburger can be both is in the category of "perhaps".

Expecting an automated grammar checker to separate the bone from the marrow here is asking a little much. I think the above use is legitimate, but others might think it too contrived to be acceptable. Watch the vote count to see!

It is true that I can have approval, or I can have disapproval.

Solution 2:

Grammar checkers are only capable of checking the limited set of rules they have been programmed to check - in this case presumably subject-verb agreement. They don't really check your grammar. They may be useful as a tool for spotting mistakes you could find yourself, but I wouldn't trust them any more than that.

In your case you gave it a deliberately mangled sentence, which is a bit of an unfair test. I don't think many automatic grammar checkers suggest changing word order anyway, there are too many permutations, and changing the word order can change the meaning of a sentence significantly.

(I know this is more of a comment, but it was too long, and besides the answer the question needs may not be the answer the questioner was looking for)

Solution 3:

"I can has cheeseburger" is ungrammatical, but so is "I can have cheeseburger." Correct would be "I can have a cheeseburger."

However, I suspect you really want to ask the question, "Can I have a cheeseburger?"