noun
1
BAD : She said she was going on holidays to France.
GOOD : She said she was going on holiday to France.
BAD : I've just got back from holidays.
GOOD : I've just got back from holiday.
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Speakers of British English use (be/go) on holiday, (return/get back) from holiday (WITHOUT -s ): 'I met her while I was on holiday in Switzerland.' 'We're supposed to be going on holiday with them.'
The plural form holidays is usually used with the/my/your etc: 'Where are you going for your holiday/s this year?' 'During the long summer holiday/s some students get a part-time job.'
Speakers of American Engish use (be/go) on vacation etc.
2
BAD : The children stay up late when they are in their holidays.
GOOD : The children stay up late when they are on holiday.
BAD : In those days we couldn't afford to go in holidays.
GOOD : In those days we couldn't afford to go on holiday.
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(be/go) on holiday (NOT in (your) holidays ): 'Mark's on holiday this week.' 'On holiday I just like to relax and read a book or two.'
3
BAD : It's time you made a holiday.
GOOD : It's time you had a holiday.
BAD : At Easter a lot of pensioners go to Lugano to make a holiday.
GOOD : At Easter a lot of pensioners go to Lugano to have a holiday.
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DO · HAVE · MAKE · TAKE
Many phrases begin with a very common very such as do, make, have, or take : ‘I felt very nervous about taking the test but, after having a long talk with Mrs Fisher, I decided I would just do my best and try not to make too many silly mistakes .’ These verbs can be combined with some nouns but not with others and since they do not have a clear meaning of their own, choosing the right combination can be a problem. Phrases which tend to cause difficulty are shown below.
HAVE
have a bath (or esp. AmE take ) ‘She’s probably upstairs having a bath.’
Have (your) breakfast ‘We usually have breakfast in the kitchen.’
Have (your) dinner ‘We had dinner and then went for a walk.’
Have a drink ‘I’ll collapse if I don’t have a drink soon.’
Have (an) experience ‘He has no experience of running a large company.’
Have fun ‘You can’t stop people from having fun.’
Have a holiday ‘It’s almost a year since we had a real holiday.’
Have an interview ‘I’ve had six interviews but no one has offered me a job.’
Have a lesson ‘Every morning we have three fifty-minute lessons.’
Have (your) lunch ‘Isn’t it about time we had lunch?’
Have an operation ‘Before I had the operation I could hardly walk.’
Have a party ‘On Saturday we’re having a party.’
Have a picnic ‘If it’s sunny we could have a picnic.’
Have a shower (or esp. AmE take) ‘It only takes me a minute to have a shower.’
TAKE
Take/do an examination ‘Why do we have to take so many tests?’
Take (your) medicine ‘Don’t forget to take your medicine.’
Take a pill ‘He refuses to take sleeping pills.’
Take/do a test ‘The last test I took was a disaster.’
MAKE
Make an effort ‘I had to make a big effort not to laugh.’
Make a journey ‘It was the first journey he’d made all on his own.’
Make a mistake ‘He has made a serious mistake.’
Make a noise ‘How can one small child make so much noise?’
Make progress ‘I made very little progress at the start of the course.’
DO
Do your best ‘Don’t worry, Tim. Just do your best.’
Do (or cause) damage ‘The storm did a lot of damage to the crops.’
Do an exercise ‘Have you done your exercises today?’
Do an experiment ‘To do this experiment, you’ll need two eggs.’
Do (sb) good ‘The holiday has done him a lot of good.’
Do harm ‘A scandal would do his reputation a lot of harm.’
Do your homework ‘Have you done your homework yet?’
Do a job ‘I’ve got one or two jobs to do this evening.’
Do the/some shopping ‘Jake has gone into town to do some shopping.’
Do research ‘We need to do a lot more research.’
Do things ‘We’ve done lots of different things today.’
Do your training ‘Where did you do your training?’
Note also: do something/anything etc: ‘I can’t come now – I’m doing something.’ ‘He hasn’t done anything wrong.'
4
See PASS1