Vacation as singular event?

Question

I am sure someone out there can tell me why there is no singular word "vacación" used in Spanish? Actually my Spanish-to-English dictionary lists the word in singular form but then proceeds to only give usage examples using the plural of the word as seen in ALL grammar, written and oral. I suspect it may have to do with the fact that the term "vacation" is not seen as a group of days (like a week has 7 days, etc) but more as multiple one day events, so a normal "vacation" has several one day events and is therefore plural. Anyone have the answer?

Nice post! You can edit your post and correct vacacción to vacación. - Jubilado, Oct 23, 2013

Answer 1

Vacation is not only a temporary time taken away from habitual action (working and studies), but also the act of vacating, which would always be used in singular.

In Spanish it is gramatically possible to use the singular una vacación to mean going on holiday, but in common usage the plural las vacaciones is preferred and it would simply sound unnatural to use it in singular.

So is vacación used to mean "the act of vacating" a place? and what verb is used with it "tomar"? - Jubilado, Oct 23, 2013

Tener, jubilado, normally. - annierats, Oct 24, 2013

Jubis, se usa como sustantivo, ej: "La vacación de todo el edificio fue anteayer" - 005faa61, Oct 24, 2013

Answer 2

I have no idea, it just occurs in the plural, and here, in old England, we have holidays, not vacations.

You're right about "holidays" in England and many other places, but you do say.. "I am going on holiday". You would not normally say I am going on holidays, right? - rom2894, Oct 23, 2013

"Holidays" in plural, at least in the Americas, refers to religious days off or time of year such as Christmas, etc - 005faa61, Oct 23, 2013

National Holidays in the USA have nothing to do with religion generally except for Christmas (which now has a totally nonreligious celebration). In Catholic countries Holidays are many times "holy days" meaning a religious significance. - Jubilado, Oct 23, 2013

Yes, we usually use the singular. I'm on hoilday now. I'm going on holiday. But my holidays are due in August.. - annierats, Oct 24, 2013