"The nurses will have a coffee in the break room."
Translation:Les infirmières prendront un café dans la salle de pause.
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I wrote "prendront du café" instead of "prendront un café"., thinking that the nurses will surely have more than a single coffee between them. Duolingo reported that I was wrong.
The first question is, why is it "de pause" and not "de la pause"? The second question is, when Duo introduces a new idiom, why don't the mouse-over hints TELL you what the idiom is?
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When you're using a noun to describe another noun, as "break"/"pause" is describing "room"/"salle" in this sentence, you just use "de" without the definite article. This contrasts with when you're indicating possession, in which case you use "de" + the appropriate article.
Not sure exactly what your second question refers to, since there isn't an idiom in this sentence. "La salle de pause" is literally "the break room".
Is this actually wrong "les infirmères prendront un cafe dans le salle de repos" or does Duo simply insist on its own version and that's it?