Native english speakers opinion needed (solved)

Nik · Post by **Nik** » Sun May 21, 2006 7:06 pm

Hey guys,
I have the following two sentences:
"When did you have had a holiday?" "I haven't had one for three years"

Now I want to know wether the "had" in italics is correct or not.
Any help is appreciated.

dracflamloc · Post by **dracflamloc** » Sun May 21, 2006 7:25 pm

"When was the last time you had a holiday?" would make more sense.

"When did you have a holiday?" would be okay too, though the above is more common.

Nik · Post by **Nik** » Sun May 21, 2006 7:29 pm

thx a lot

Rescator · Post by **Rescator** » Sun May 21, 2006 7:32 pm

Entirely depends on the context! If you wonder when the last time was that somebody had a holiday, you should ask:

"When was the last time you had a holiday?" as dracflamloc stated.

Typical answer would be "Two weeks ago", "half a year ago", "last year" etc.

If you ask this however:

"When was your holiday?"

The answers will usually be more specific "The 15th of May" for example!
Although the former can be answered in the same way.

Edit: gah, just noticed drac already wrote something similar to the second form. (and corrected a few spelling mistakes)

Nik · Post by **Nik** » Sun May 21, 2006 8:16 pm

Well it was for school so I didn't have this choice the senctence was
"When you last (have) a holiday" "I (not have) one for three years"
and we had to fill in the correct form of the verb in brackets