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I'd like to ask my friend out this coming weekend plus the coming Martin Luther King holiday.

I was about to say: How's your weekend shaping up? But I feel like he might also be available on the Monday holiday. Is there a better word than just weekend (basically just Saturday and Sunday) here?

In my native language, there is a word literally means "small holiday" (a weekend plus a one day holiday usually connected to the weekend); is there something like this in English?

psmears
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Nicholas
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  • @HotLicks Or preceded by one. – CodeGnome Jan 19 '19 at 21:01
  • @CodeGnome - Except that that rarely happens in the US. – Hot Licks Jan 19 '19 at 21:41
  • @HotLicks I wouldn't say rarely. Florida (at least) government employees get the Thursday and Friday of Thanksgiving off. – Kenneth K. Jan 19 '19 at 23:07
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    @KennethK. - That's not a 3-day weekend. – Hot Licks Jan 19 '19 at 23:18
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    Hi Nicholas, if you're comfortable revealing, could you please tell us what your native language is, and what the phrase for "small holiday" is. I really think it adds to questions like this where one asks for analogies in English for structures / words / phrases in other languages. – Selene Routley Jan 20 '19 at 22:36
  • @HotLicks Still works for the occasions when it does happenthough – Azor Ahai -him- Jan 22 '19 at 19:06
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    Trivial questions lke this are for the ELL site. – Fattie Jan 23 '19 at 13:13
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    @Fattie: ... um. No, no they're not. (What makes this question trivial? What does it have to do with learning English? If it really were trivial, why would that make it suitable for ELL? I could go on...) – Marthaª Jan 24 '19 at 20:16
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    It is absolutely, totally trivial. It's a question that only an English learner who is not a native speaker would ask . If the phrase "long weekend" is not an example of a universally known phrase, it would be impossible to state an example of a universally known phrase. – Fattie Jan 24 '19 at 20:21
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    Note "In my native language .. is there something like this in English?" it would be difficult to make-up a question that more clearly is for ELL. (If it's not for ELL, ie because it is so trivial it's not even suitable for ELL) it is surely not for this site. So :ppppp – Fattie Jan 24 '19 at 20:22

4 Answers4

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In English, this is commonly called a 'long weekend'. Depending on the length, 'three-day weekend' or 'four-day weekend' works as well.

CJ Dennis
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Glorfindel
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  • You might want to specify the particular region that this comes from. It's a "long weekend" in Australia, but judging from the other answers this terminology is not universal. – stib Jan 20 '19 at 00:05
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    @stib Eastern US here, definitely the only thing I would consider calling this is a long weekend. – Stephen S Jan 20 '19 at 00:23
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    @StephenS - Also eastern US (Virginia), I'd say "three-day weekend." – SomethingDark Jan 20 '19 at 01:49
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    SW UK, and this is definitely a long weekend around here. – Richard Ward Jan 20 '19 at 16:12
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    Southern US, and I've heard "long weekend" but it feels less natural than "three-day weekend". – Hearth Jan 20 '19 at 19:13
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    Canada: long weekend. – ermanen Jan 20 '19 at 20:52
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    Midwestern US (MN) here; both long and three-day weekend are used frequently and interchangeably. Also holiday weekend, if a holiday is involved. – Xavon_Wrentaile Jan 21 '19 at 04:00
  • Yorkshire, UK. It's a long weekend – JGNI Jan 21 '19 at 12:16
  • Offtopic, but same for dutch: Lang (lah-ng) weekend – Martijn Jan 21 '19 at 13:54
  • One more from Canada: "long weekend" is the common term around here. People only use 3-day or 4-day (or whatever number of days off) when they feel the need to be specific. For example, there's a stat holiday on Monday (that everyone gets off by law) but one person has booked off the preceding Friday as well - he might say "4-day weekend" to emphasize that he'll be out longer than most of us. – Steve-O Jan 21 '19 at 14:50
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    @stib I've lived in several parts of the US. I think "three day weekend" and "long weekend" would be understood everywhere I've lived and seem roughly equally common where I live now (Southwestern US). – TimothyAWiseman Jan 21 '19 at 17:43
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    I find "extended weekend" to be a generic term for Saturday, Sunday, and one or more additional consecutive days, while 3-day and 4-day are more specific. – Monty Harder Jan 21 '19 at 19:04
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    Southwest here--I would say three (or four) day weekend is a lot more common than long weekend but both would be understood. – Loren Pechtel Jan 21 '19 at 23:44
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    Pretty universal in Australia too. Definitely "long weekend". – CJ Dennis Jan 22 '19 at 09:58
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    Southern US (Georgia), and three-day or four-day weekend is the standard use, but long weekend would be understood. – Davo Jan 22 '19 at 12:16
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    @MontyHarder: while "extended weekend" is certainly understandable, in my experience (in southern California and Pennsylvania) it's not generally used for this purpose. – Marthaª Jan 22 '19 at 21:01
  • Brit here: I would interpret "long weekend" as taking both Friday and Monday off round a weekend for a four day holiday. – Jack Aidley Jan 23 '19 at 18:39
  • From all over the US: three/four-day weekend; extended weekend; long weekend. – kayleeFrye_onDeck Jan 23 '19 at 23:51
  • @Marthaª That's probably because people discussing extended weekends are nearly always talking about a specific three-day weekend or four-day weekend, but not about the general idea of "extended weekend" that subsumes both of them. – Monty Harder Jan 24 '19 at 19:43
  • OT but in German it's "langes Wochenende", which perfectly translates. – C5H8NNaO4 Jan 25 '19 at 10:25
  • New Yorker here. That would be a three day weekend normally, but in the context of “how’s your X looking?” It would sound weird. I think we would say “holiday weekend” in such a case. – Broklynite Jan 25 '19 at 13:46
  • If people are so dumb not to read the edit history make the joke more evident and place it in bold Sack Exchange – Mari-Lou A Jan 14 '20 at 14:14
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In British English, a public holiday is called a "bank holiday", and when it occurs on a Monday, as it often does, the three-day period is called a "bank holiday weekend".

Boann
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    But do note that this is specific to weekends "extended" by a bank holiday. If you have a SAT-SUN-MON off because you've taken some leave from work, that is not a "bank holiday weekend". That's just an extra day off, or as Glorfindel said, a "long weekend". – Richard Ward Jan 20 '19 at 16:14
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    @RichardWard note that "Martin Luther King holiday" would be a reasonable comparison to a bank holiday I think – UKMonkey Jan 20 '19 at 21:00
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    'Bank Holiday' is not all UK (or did not used to be); just England and Wales, not Scotland, and do not know about NI. – Keith Jan 20 '19 at 22:31
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    @Keith There are separate bank holidays for E&W, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, and it's been that way since at least 1971. Although keep in mind that an employer isn't obligated to give you the day off for a bank holiday. – LMS Jan 21 '19 at 14:42
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    “In British English” or “In Britain”? British English is spoken in more places than Britain, and those places don't all call their public holidays “bank holidays”. – SevenSidedDie Jan 21 '19 at 20:18
  • @LMS A bank holiday in Scotland is not the same as a pubic holiday. Wikipedia: 'In 1996, Scottish banks made the business decision to harmonise their own holidays with the rest of the United Kingdom, with the result that 'bank holidays' in Scotland are neither public holidays nor the days on which banks are closed'. – Keith Jan 21 '19 at 20:50
  • @Keith "Bank holiday" has a specific legal meaning under the Banking and Financial Dealings Act 1971, and that Act provides for separate holidays in E&W, Scotland, and NI. That Act applies whether or not banks decide to close on other days. I never mentioned public holidays. – LMS Jan 21 '19 at 21:13
  • @SevenSidedDie: See https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/British%20English, https://chambers.co.uk/search/?query=british&title=21st. – ruakh Jan 25 '19 at 06:02
  • @ruakh I'm aware that there are other, more precise meanings of BrE. But without qualification here, it's ambiguous: per pragmatics, using unqualified British English on ELU is more strongly evocative of the contrastive meaning (mentioned in ¶2) in the reader, not the precise meaning you indicate Boann could be meaning. Therefore the post is ambiguous, and I'm just asking Boann to clarify whether they are asserting a vocabulary entry that is specific to Britain, or whether they assert it appears in some Commowealth BrE vocabularies as well. – SevenSidedDie Jan 25 '19 at 17:54
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One more possibility is the phrase holiday weekend. From Merriam-Webster:

a weekend that is preceded or followed by a holiday

This is my go-to phrase in situations like you describe, since it doesn't assume that the other person actually gets the holiday off from work (I don't get MLK Day off, for example; rather, my employer offers events at work celebrating MLK, Jr.'s legacy).

So you could say something like:

How's your holiday weekend shaping up? Do you have Monday off?

It also works for slightly longer holidays, such as (the US) Thanksgiving, or the 4th of July when it falls on a Tuesday or Thursday.

1006a
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  • This answer seems the most correct for the OP. The selected answer, while also correct, can apply to general situations where a person takes a sick day on Friday or Monday - i.e. not being an actual holiday. (This is based on my Midwestern US variety of English) – whatisit Jan 23 '19 at 22:55
  • Note that this is not appropriate in British English, where "holiday" has a different meaning (= US "vacation", i.e. time off work or away from home). If it weren't for our constant exposure to American media, it would be very confusing to a Brit to hear that someone was working on a "holiday weekend". – IMSoP Jan 24 '19 at 10:03
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I think we need to coin the phrase, Threekend

Capricorn1
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    You could make a case for threekend, as it isn't entirely original. It'd be great if you edited your answer to back it up! As it stands, it might get deleted; it was flagged by the review system as "low quality because of its length and content". – tmgr Jan 20 '19 at 00:08
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    I honestly just thought of it at the moment. I didn't think to look at up at the time, but I'm also not surprised I'm not the first. And somebody once wrote, "Brevity is the soul of wit." Apparently not here though. Tough crowd. – Capricorn1 Jan 20 '19 at 13:50
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    No insult intended in saying threekend isn't original: point is, it's a better answer if you weren't the first to get there. It'll definitely attract more upvotes if you make the case, provide references and back up your answer. That's the standard here: authoritative, referenced answers that explain why they are right, rather than unsourced opinion... or pithy one-liners, no harm to you or your bard! Have a poke round the Help Centre.... and please do stick around. – tmgr Jan 20 '19 at 14:03
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    Why do you think we need to coin a phrase?? – curiousdannii Jan 21 '19 at 06:26
  • Heh, I may actually start using this. – Lightness Races in Orbit Jan 23 '19 at 14:49