Spread the Word – Holidays

¡Vacaciones! Estamos seguros de que es una de tus palabras favoritas. Si quieres seguir aprendiendo vocabulario relacionado con las vacaciones ¡no puedes perderte nuestro blog!

You may be reading this month’s Spread the Word while on holiday – if that’s the case, lucky you! This month we are in fact looking at words related to holidays (British English), vacations (American English) breaks and getaways.

So what kind of holiday do you prefer? An activity holiday, where you spend your time doing a particular activity such as walking, canoeing, rock-climbing, painting, or cooking, or an adventure holiday, a type of holiday in which you do new and exciting things, like a trek or a safari?

Or are you more of a package deal person, and prefer an all-in holiday, where everything’s arranged by a travel company for a fixed price, including the cost of the hotel and transport, and sometimes meals and entertainment?

Nowadays a lot of holiday-makers prefer the flexibility of arranging your holiday yourself, taking advantage of the low-cost flights of budget or no frills airlines, and then booking the hotel, self-catering apartment or holiday villa separately. Another option could be a house swap where two families exchange houses for a holiday, and have you heard about couch surfing, where you can sleep on someone’s sofa for free?

Maybe you’re more into life outdoors and prefer to go camping. Some people are not so keen to sleep in a tent but nowadays you don’t have to rough it if you don’t want to: we now have glamping, which puts the glamour in camping. For example, instead of a tent, you can rent a yurt, where you will be able to rest in quite some comfort.

Sometimes time restrictions mean that your break has to be short, and we talk about mini-breaks and even daycations if you only have a day to enjoy. And you don’t even have to go away at all – stay at home and have a staycation.

Recently on Twitter, the actor and broadcaster Stephen Fry, questioned the use of the word leave when used referring to a holiday (or hols as he puts it).

I would say that leave or leave of absence is normally used to refer to time off work (or from the military) that is not strictly speaking a holiday; in this context we talk about maternity, paternity, sick and compassionate leave. However, it’s interesting to note from the responses to Stephen’s tweet, that many people use leave, especially annual leave, to refer to their holiday time – and some people use it only if they are staying at home. It’s always interesting to see that native speakers can disagree about their own language use!

Happy Holidays!