Estar de vacaciones.

Question

I am learning Spanish. How come when we say "to be on vacation.", they say "estar de vacaciones." in plural form. Is there a singular form, i.e. "estar de vacación."?

Answer 1

Only when the word "vacation" is plural in Spanish does it mean vacation(U.S.) or holiday (British). That's really the only explanation.

Vacación as a singular noun refers to intermissions or breaks from a court session.

Answer 2

Hi, Joaquin.

For some reason "vacation" is singular in English, but it is plural in Spanish. Why? I guess the answer is "just because"! I know that's not a real academic answer, but lots of times languages are not logical and they don't translate directly. So..."just because"!

I hope that this has helped.