Hello
Faith,
Your question is certainly not stupid! In fact, no question about English use or grammar put here at Dave's ESL Cafe, if sincerely requested, can be stupid. It is easy enough for we native-speaker teachers to become confused, and quite understandable that other people will have questions of all sorts.
The sample sentences you submitted above are both correct in all respects, as far as I can tell, with regard to the rules of English grammar. However, there is a likely problem with both of them. The phrase "
in the holiday" seems unusual to me. Now, I've been around long enough to know that just because something seems unusual to me, does
not mean it is wrong or even unusual in the language. It merely means it is not commonly used where I am located. I have never encountered it before, used in this way. Perhaps other readers have.
Presumably, the sentences are meant to be regarded as spoken English, that is, somebody is supposed to
say these sentences to another person. They are not, I am guessing, intended to be written. If that is the case, then I suspect most English speakers would refer to
your holiday (meaning the listener's), rather than
the holiday, as is written in your post. In addition, I also suspect most American speakers would say
on your holiday (or even more likely:
on your vacation) rather than
in your holiday. British speakers, indeed perhaps most European speakers of English, might use the
in your holiday phrase, but we should let them comment on that.
So, the first sentence would probably be rendered (by Americans) as:
1.
What are you going to do on your vacation?
The other sentence, while not grammatically incorrect as it stands, is nevertheless likely to be regarded as awkward. Most likely, a native (American) speaker would say:
2.
Where did you go on your vacation?
I hope this helps you,
Faith. Perhaps you can see why your colleague marked them wrong, but can also see why you think they are OK. You are both right!
Larry Latham
