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Hi,-I'm confused about the preposition that should be used before 'holiday',e.g.,'...summer holiday...'.I checked 'American Corpus' and it seemed that 'in,on,during,over' could be used ,but I need an authentic answer from vetran teachers-CJ,Mister Micawber,and others.-Why is it 'There are' and not 'There is' in a sentence such as:'There are a hundred boys...'?-I wrote to a post to another forum asking if 'Please explain the question to me'and'Please explain to me the question'are both correct and the answer came they were'both fine'.The problem came when I checked this forum and got a look at 'direct and indirect object' threads;I found out that only '...explain the question to me'is correct.Thanks a million

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

Anonymous-I'm confused about the preposition that should be used before 'holiday',e.g.,'...summer holiday...'.I checked 'American Corpus' and it seemed that 'in,on,during,over' could be used

I don't personally use "in summer holiday", and being American, I don't use "summer holiday" either. On this side of the Atlantic we use "vacation". I'd say one of these, listed with my preferred preposition first, least preferred, last.

It happened [on / over / during] my summer vacation.

AnonymousThere are a hundred boys...

"a hundred" is treated as plural for the purposes of verb agreement.

Anonymousonly '...explain the question to me' is correct.

It might be better to say that this version is much better than ... explain to me the question .... Note, however, that it is very idiomatic to leave out the indirect object with the verb explain. Native speakers are much more likely to say something like this:

Could you please explain the rule?

There is no need to use "to me" at all.

CJ

Anonymous · Answer

CalifJim
Anonymous-I'm confused about the preposition that should be used before 'holiday',e.g.,'...summer holiday...'.I checked 'American Corpus' and it seemed that 'in,on,during,over' could be used
I don't personally use "in summer holiday", and being American, I don't use "summer holiday" either. On this side of the Atlantic we use "vacation". I'd say one of these, listed with my preferred preposition first, least preferred, last. It happened [on / over / during] my summer vacation.
AnonymousThere are a hundred boys...
"a hundred" is treated as plural for the purposes of verb agreement.
Anonymousonly '...explain the question to me' is correct.
It might be better to say that this version is much better than ... explain to me the question .... Note, however, that it is very idiomatic to leave out the indirect object with the verb explain. Native speakers are much more likely to say something like this: Could you please explain the rule? There is no need to use "to me" at all. CJ

Thanks,CJ

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