A holiday or holidays

Question

Hi all ,

I think the term "holiday" without "a" is uncountable and means the length of time during which a holiday lasts e.g. A:How much holiday do you have?

B:I have 20-day holiday .

It means my holiday lasts 20 days.However, the term "holidays" is a plural countable noun and it has a singular countable form "a holiday" .

Hence, we can ask the question:

A:How many holidays do you have a year ? B: We have 13 holidays .The first one is the New Year holiday .

Jalil from Morocco.

GPY · Accepted Answer

The use of the word "holiday" varies between AmE and BrE. I am a BrE speaker.

jalil2017I think the term "holiday" without "a" is uncountable and means the length of time during which a holiday lasts e.g. A:How much holiday do you have?

Yes. (Not necessarily just without "a", but without any determiner.)

jalil2017B:I have 20-day holiday .

This isn't right. You can say "I have 20 days' holiday".

jalil2017A:How many holidays do you have a year ? B: We have 13 holidays .The first one is the New Year holiday .

One type of "holiday" is a public holiday, which is usually one or two days and is enjoyed by (almost) everyone. These are country-specific. In the UK they are also called "bank holidays". Another type of "holiday" is a personal holiday when you take a week or two off work and maybe go on a trip somewhere. When you ask "How many holidays do you have a year?" it may seem as if you are asking about the second type (in which case 13 would be an excessive number). I think you probably mean public holidays, in which case it would be clearer to specifically say that.

Your spacing around punctuation is haphazard and often incorrect. Put a space after a full stop or question mark, but no space before.

A holiday or holidays

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