I haven't had a good holiday in ages.

[nq:1]I haven't had a good holiday in ages. or.. I haven't had a good holiday for ages. Which of those is better in British English?[/nq]
I hear both pretty frequently, but prefer to use the second one. I'm a native speaker of British English.

Mike Stevens
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[nq:2]I haven't had a good holiday in ages. or.. I haven't had a good holiday for ages. Which of those is better in British English?[/nq]
[nq:1]I hear both pretty frequently, but prefer to use the second one. I'm a native speaker of British English.[/nq]
I am a native speaker of northern English, and would think that the first one is more common. Maybe it is a North/South thi

[nq:1]I haven't had a good holiday in ages. or.. I haven't had a good holiday for ages. Which of those is better in British English?[/nq]
I am a Brit and they both sound idiomatic to me and I would be quite happy to use either form, although my initial response is that I use "in" - I am from the North Midlands.

[nq:1]I haven't had a good holiday in ages. or.. I haven't had a good holiday for ages. Which of those is better in British English?[/nq]
In this context, 'ages' means 'a long time'.
I have not had a good holiday for a long time - I have only had a good holiday for a short time.
I have not had a good holiday in a long time - seems to be more precise.

So, I would prefer

[nq:1]I haven't had a good holiday in ages. or.. I haven't had a good holiday for ages. Which of those is better in British English?[/nq]
I would naturally say "for ages". I grew up in the South of England and still live there.
To my ears, "in ages" sounds American, notwithstanding the other reports here of it being used further north in Britain!
Cheers
Tony

Tony Mo

pinko ha scritto:
[nq:1]I haven't had a good holiday in ages. or.. I haven't had a good holiday for ages. Which of those is better in British English?[/nq]
Thanks everyone. From your replies I deduce that both forms are correct and commonly used.

mail to: pinko(at)people.it

Tony Mountifield ha scritto:
[nq:1]To my ears, "in ages" sounds American[/nq]
Yes, I think the 'in' form is more common in American English.

mail to: pinko(at)people.it

Blue Sow schrieb:
[nq:2]I haven't had a good holiday in ages. or.. I haven't had a good holiday for ages. Which of those is better in British English?[/nq]
[nq:1]In this context, 'ages' means 'a long time'. I have not had a good holiday for a long time - I have only had a good holiday for a short time.[/nq]
This interpretation seems totally inappropriate to me. For me both expre

[nq:2]I haven't had a good holiday in ages. or.. I haven't had a good holiday for ages. Which of those is better in British English?[/nq]
[nq:1]In this context, 'ages' means 'a long time'. I have not had a good holiday for a long time - I have only had a good holiday for a short time.[/nq]
That's worthy of a Lewis Carroll character.

Philip Baker

At 16:52:37 on Fri, 1 Dec 2006, Tony Mountifield
(Email Removed) wrote in :
[nq:1]I would naturally say "for ages". I grew up in the South of England and still live there. To my ears, "in ages" sounds American, notwithstanding the other reports here of it being used further north in Britain![/nq]
My instinct would be to say "for ages", but equally I would say "in years" rather than "fo