Hey everyone, the holiday season is coming up so I thought I'd revisit prepositions and their slight variations in meaning.
during Christmas
This isn't used so often in North American English but the expression is talking about during Christmas vacation or during the Christmas holidays/season. Actually, it is rare to hear during Christmas being used on it's own it will usually be followed by another word such as season/holidays/vacation and is usually preceeded by THE.
I love the all the decorations during the Christmas season.
Where did you go during (the) Christmas vacation?
He's always in a good mood during the Christmas holidays.
A similar expression is over Christmas which is used with holidays or vacation.
What did you do over the Christmas holidays?
I stayed home & relaxed over (the) Christmas vacation?
for Christmas
For is used to indicate a PURPOSE, GOAL or REASON. It's not used to talk about time.
This is for you.
I got this for my birthday.
So for Christmas is talking about the reason you did something.
Dan: What are you doing for Christmas?
Alice: Well, I have to work so we'll have a special dinner on December 22nd. How about you?
Dan: For Christmas I'm putting up a ton of decorations & lights before going skiing in Switzerland!
On Christmas
On is used to indicate a specific DAY so if someone says "on Christmas" they're talking about December 25th only.
On Christmas, I always eat a big dinner.
I loved opening presents on Christmas morning when I was a kid.
At Christmas
At is used to indicate a specific time(noon, midnight, 1PM, etc.), in this case it is a time of year. It has a similar meaning to during the Christmas season.
People tend to tip more at Christmas.
I love it when it's snowy at Christmas.
At Christmas time, I always try & drink Christmas beer or eggnog!
Happy Holidays!
Merry Christmas!
Phil
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment