Q: About in/on usage (was 4 letter words)

[Andrew Ponomarenko]

>> > Some two-letter words. I'm having big trouble with them.
>> > [snipped]

And how would you say:

I've spent my holiday in mountains.
or I've spent my holiday on mountains.
or I've spent my holiday to mountains.
or I've spent my holiday at mountains.

Thanks,
--

Andrew Ponomarenko <a...@unity-bars.carrier.kiev.ua>

--------------------------
Unity-BARS, Kiev, Ukraine
Tel. +380 44 553-3869, 553-3571

[Geoff Butler]

Polar <s.m...@ix.netcom.com> wrote:
>On 2 Oct 1997 18:48:02 +0300, Andrew Ponomarenko

><a...@unity-bars.carrier.kiev.ua> wrote:
>
>>And how would you say:
>>
>> I've spent my holiday in mountains.
>>or I've spent my holiday on mountains.
>>or I've spent my holiday to mountains.
>>or I've spent my holiday at mountains.
>

>Nice try, Andrew, but I'm afraid you'll have to toss all four
>of them. Correct would be:
>
>I've spent my holiday IN THE mountains.
>
>In a very limited sense, you *could* say "on mountains"
> but there you would be implying that you were climbing/trekking,
>which doesn't sound like the sense you were looking for. Also, it
>sounds rather odd to the native speaker.

No disagreement with Polar, but perhaps a little clarification. Andrew's
posting from .ua, and everybody knows[1] that the language of Ukraine
has no articles. Articles present a huge problem to non-native speakers
of English - these questions come up regularly, and attempts by native
speakers to explain almost always fail.

I'm also using the simple past "I spent" below, because it seems more
likely that that's what you want - a reference to something that is
complete. There are cases where "I've spent" would be right, but that's
another thread.

I spent my holiday on a mountain

One unspecified mountain, I climbed it or camped on it.

I spent my holiday on the mountain

As above, except that both the speaker and the listener know
which mountain, probably because it was mentioned earlier
in the converation.

I spent my holiday on the mountains.

Unlikely but possible. I spent my holiday climbing several mountains,
and we already know which mountains.

I spent my holiday on mountains

I climbed or camped on several mountains

I spent my holiday in a mountain

Unlikely but possible. I spent my holiday in a cave or a pothole.

I spent my holiday in the mountain

As above, but we know which mountain.

I spent my holiday in the mountains

Idiomatic. "In the mountains" means "in an area of mountains" or
"among the mountains".

I spent my holiday in mountains

Unlikely but possible. I did a lot of caving or potholing in
different mountains.

See, I told you English articles are difficult.

[1] Everybody who's followed the "The Ukraine" thread, anyway.
-ler