"His vacation is in July."

Translation: Ses vacances sont en juillet.

[Sitesurf]

"Vacances" is always plural when it means vacation, holidays.
"Vacance" means vacancy.
"N'est-ce-pas ?"

[stopbeingsoanno]

Thanks Sitesurf, I could not figure out why it was plural, now I know.

[vamagman]

A singular word that the French want to be plural. Ok.....

[Brianary]

No stranger than "pair of jeans" for a singular item vs "jean" in French.

[shalfyard]

Thank you! Was just checking to see why plural and here is your answer! :D

[lemonpiefirefly]

Merci beaucoup!

[Aeronautix]

I also want to thank you for this obvious follow-up question and answer. :p

[blueandwhite4]

Thank you!

[John68368]

Well anticipated!

[Camerican]

It seems that vacance can mean either vacancy or vacation in French, but needs to be plural to mean vacation. N'est pas?

[Henaball]

Surely 'est' is is and 'sont' is are.... so why is the answer ses vacances sont en juillet?????
thanks

[Sitesurf]

"vacation" is a singular in English which translates in "vacances" which is a plural in French, hence the change of verb from 3rd person singular (is) to 3rd person plural (sont)

[SwingPuck]

So are you saying that there is no way of distinguishing between a single vacation in July and every vacation being in July, because it seems to me that that sentence is suggesting that "His vacations are in July"... i.e., all of them... confusing.

[Sitesurf]

"vacance" does not mean "vacation/holidays", only "vacancy".

So, if you say "ses vacances sont en juillet", it means that he has several days of vacation in July.

[SwingPuck]

I see! Thanks (again)!

[vorobeichik]

Why Ses and not Son?

[Sitesurf]

"vacances" is feminine plural.

"son" is used for a masculine singular noun.

[WindyDixon]

How would i say "he has vacation in July"?

[MarshaClarke]

il a des vacances en juillet

[deactivated user]

It says "font" but the hint should read "sont"

[Sitesurf]

There was an error, "sont" = are (they) and "font" = do/make (they). Sorry for that.

[EdMarie24601]

I'm a bit confused- is this right? "ses" is masculine and "sa" or "son" is feminine?

[shalfyard]

Sa = Feminine

Son = Masculine

Ses = Plural

[EdMarie24601]

Thank you!

[kate.latham]

Why can't it be son vacances sont en juillet

[Sitesurf]

"son" is masculine singular

"vacances" is feminine plural

[kate.latham]

thank you

[MarcusBern4]

Why is it "en juillet" and not "au juillet"?

[Sitesurf]

Because "en" is used for months and years, to translate "in".

[rjpmdpa]

Why not dans juillet?

[Sitesurf]

The preposition for months and years is "en".

[DanDanShu]

They should accept a little typo! "Ses vacances sont en julliet"

[b_adger]

I'm glad they did not, or i would not have realised I've been spelling (and saying) 'juillet' wrong all this time

[tasha53505]

why isn't "son etc" also correct? i thought ses was fem?

[Sitesurf]

"Vacation" meaning a few days off is "les vacances", a feminine plural noun in French.

"Ses" is the possessive adjective you have to use whenever the object owned by a third party (il, elle, on) is plural: ses vacances.

When the possession is masculine, you use "son".
When the possession is feminine and starts with a vowel sound, you use "son" again, to avoid the vowel sound conflict.
When the possession is feminine and starts with a consonant, you use "sa"

[Cheryl211562]

Merci!