# EN: (on) holiday / holidays



## agnes50

bonjour à tous!
I'm going on holiday?
I'm going on holidays?
can it be said?
does it mean something different?
thank you so much everyone!!
agnes

*Moderator note:* Multiple threads have been merged to create this one.


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## madbumblebea

1. "i'm going on holiday"  
2. "i'm going on *my* holiday(s)" - less often heard with an s, use the 1st one.


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## Paf le chien

holyday (vacances) *pluriel invariable*. UK.

_vacation_ (vacances) *pluriel invariable*. USA.

Pour l'Australie, NZ, CAN, etc. je ne sais pas...


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## VanOo

Hi everybody!

I wonder when use the 's' at the end of holiday?

In this sentence, shall I?

_I perfecly remember our winter holidays.
_And if I use holidays, I have to use '_they_' or '_it_' ?

Thanks a lot for any help or correction!

VanOo.


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## Franglais1969

Hello,

We usually use holiday in the singular in BE, like a Bank Holiday, summer holiday, Christmas holiday, holiday entitlement.

Also in phrases such as:

"Where do you plan to go on holiday?"

Your phrase is correct, because you are referring to more than one holiday.  In multiple instances you would use they, otherwise it.


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## orlando09

It depends what you mean -- if you mean that you went on holiday several times, and are referring to holidays in the plural, your sentence is right

otherwise, if you are referring to one holiday (could be one weekend, one week, two weeks etc -- i.e. in one period), it should be singular. We say "a holiday" for une vacance, even though holiday originally came from holy day (as in jour férié/ la fête d'un saint).

Occasionally there is a plural use in a phrase like "we are going on our holidays in July," (which implies, to me, an annual holiday/a main holiday for the year) . But you could also say in this case, simply, "we are going on holiday" 

re. plural - you would use "them" or "they," but only in the main plural use which I mentioned first, above.

e.g. we used to enjoy our holidays in Greece. They were wonderful. (i.e. we used to regularly go to Greece)


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## VanOo

Ok, I have to use holidays if I am talking about many holiday. 
And if I am talking about holyday (whatever how long it was), I don't.
It's too logical for a french man like me ! 

Thanks a lot for your clear explanations!


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## wildan1

_holiday_ as an equivalent to _vacances _is BE only
in AE it's closer to French -- we say _vacation_

_I went to France on my vacation last summer._

in AE a _holiday_ is normally only used as the equivalent of _jour férié_

This Thursday is Thanksgiving in the US--an official _holiday_. My office also gives us Friday off as a _paid holiday,_ so we have a four-day weekend.

In AE you will often hear people say _Happy Holidays_ in December, as a PC way to avoid any religious reference to Christmas, Hannukah, Eid, etc. You don't know the other person's religion, so you just say "Happy Holidays" to be all-inclusive.


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## orlando09

VanOo said:


> Ok, I have to use holidays if I am talking about many holidays. (or "more than one holiday)
> And if I am talking about a holyday(whatever how long it was), I don't.
> It's too logical for a french man like me !
> 
> Thanks a lot for your clear explanations!


 
That's OK. As I said, in some contexts, people _sometimes_ use "holidays" to mean one holiday period, but it's fairly unusual and quite idiomatic, and it is simpler (for your use) to stick with a holiday = one period /some holidays = several different periods.

PS as Wildan says "holiday" usually = "vacation" in AE. Normally we don't use the word "vacation" in BE. Take your pick as to which you prefer!

PPS Having said just to stick to the simple rule, it wouldn't be very unusual for someone to ask : "where are you going for your holidays this year?" (for example) -- referring to the convention that people (especially families) traditionally go away for one main holiday a year. In this case, the expected answer would be something like "we're thinking of going to Italy" and not "Oh, Italy in March, and then Turkey in August and then we're skiing in the Alps in December"

Who told you English was logical?!


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## clairefontaine1

Hi there!

I'm always a bit confused when it comes to use the word _holiday_ because I don't really know whether I have to use it in the plural or the singular. 
help please!
thank you


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## cropje_jnr

It depends on the context.

A holiday = a single trip away, e.g. "I'm going on a holiday to France next March" = _je pars passer des vacances en France en mars prochain_.

Holidays = extended non-work periods, e.g. "Got any plans for the holidays?" = _quoi de prévu pour les vacances ?_

We also have "a public holiday" (_jour ferrié_).


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## wildan1

There also are different usages of this word in BE and AE

In AE _holiday_ refers only to days celebration (what cropje calls "public holiday"): Christmas, Easter, Labor Day are _holidays_ (_fête ; congé payé_). There is no travel implicit in this word for us. _I stayed home for the holidays_ means you stayed at your house over Christmas, Easter, Passover, Eid, etc.

Similar to _vacances_ in French, personal time for rest and travel is called _vacation_ (always singular).


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## mad nad

When should we say: "I'm going on holiday*s*" and "I'm going on holiday"?

Thanks,

mad nad


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## snarkhunter

As far as I'm aware, "holiday" is used in the singular, most of the time.

The only exception I know being the expression "summer holidays" (i.e. _les grandes vacances_)

So it would be "I'm going on holiday" (or even "... on vacation").


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## Kxking

Holidays' also used for the season around Christmas, Hanukkah, and New Year's Day


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## Roaming Gnome

I agree that you hear people say "I'm going on holiday" (not on holidays), but only in Britain. The expression isn't common in North America, where one tends to use "going on vacation" or "taking a vacation".


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## Keith Bradford

British usage:
The holidays = the long break away from school/work in the summer = _les (grandes) vacances_
A holiday = a journey for leisure purposes = _un voyage (de vacances)_
Christmas = the end-of-year festivities = _les fêtes (de fin d'année)_


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## drassum

Bonjour, 

Quelqu'un pourrait-il me dire si "holiday*s*" fonctionne comme un pluriel ou un singulier. Puis-je le faire précéder de "this" ou dois-je employer "these".

Ou dois-je employer les déterminants comme suit:

This holiday / these holidays 

D'avance merci pour vos réponses.


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## lucas-sp

Um... je croix qu'en anglais on esquive cette question, précisément là où il faut décider si "holiday" est singulier ou pas:
_
*This holiday season,* think of the less fortunate._


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## jann

For me, in American English, "holiday" in the singular refers to a specific _jour férié_.  Christmas Day is a holiday, Independence Day is a holiday, etc.  On Thanksgiving Day, it would be perfectly natural to say e.g., "This is my favorite holiday because I love the traditional food."

In American English, "the holidays" -- in the plural and preceded by the definite article, occasionally capitalized -- refers collectively to the all of the individual holidays that fall at the end of the Gregorian calendar year.  These holidays include Thanksgiving, Kwanza, Hanukkah, Christmas, New Year's Day, etc.  As you can see from what I have written in the past two sentences, it is also possible to use "holidays" as the plural of "holiday," to refer to multiple specific _jours fériés_.  

Does that help?


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## Assurancetourix

In British English we don't use the term _vacation _very much, which probably gives _holiday _has a wider meaning. I would say:

_We're going on holiday_
_Let's book a holiday_

Obviously this usage has a plural, as in:

_Do you take a) no foreign holidays b) 1-3 foreign holidays c) 4 or more foreign holidays in a typical year?
_
_Holidays _is also used in a different sense, as in:

_What did you do in the summer / Easter / Christmas holidays _(i.e. the school holidays). It could well be that this originally referred to the fact that there were several bank holidays during the period. For me though the difference is that the _summer holidays _is a more or less fixed period when everyone is off, whereas a _summer holiday _is when you go away somewhere. So if you went away in June you might well have taken your _summer holiday _outside the _summer holidays._ 

This difference also explains why _happy holidays _is an Americanism. Another difference is that we would say _Christmas day is a bank holiday _on this side of the Atlantic.

As often happens the American usage seems closer to the original meaning (if I have understood both correctly!) I believe the word _holiday_ came from _holy day _meaning a sacred day when people were not supposed to work.


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## Keith Bradford

drassum said:


> ... dois-je employer les déterminants comme suit:
> 
> This holiday / these holidays
> 
> ...



Tout à fait.  La question, _faut-il choisir le singulier ou le pluriel_, a été traitée ci-dessus.  Mais une fois choisie, la logique exige le déterminant et le verbe qui conviennent. P.ex :

_This holiday is a short one.
Britain celebrates eight bank holidays; they are listed on http://golondon.about.com/od/londoncalendar/p/bank_holiday.htm.
Those holidays were the best in my life.

_


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