plan a dinner party

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ziawj2

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Oct 3, 2010
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English Teacher
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Chinese
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China
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China
I looked ‘party’ in the dictionary and found that ‘party’ can be used with ‘throw’, ‘give’, ‘hold’, ‘have’, and ‘organize’. And then searched COCA Corpus and found that ‘party’ is commonly used with ‘throw’ and ‘have’. So can I conclude that it is commonly acceptable to native speakers if you write ‘throw a party’ or ‘have a party’, and that ‘have a party’ is more informal than ‘throw a party’?
spoken fiction magazine newspaper aca.
 

emsr2d2

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Jul 28, 2009
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British English
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UK
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UK
In BrE, you'll hear "to have a party" more often. However, that generally refers to a party that you organise yourself, either at your house or at a hired venue and which is for your own benefit (your birthday or similar).
If you organise a party in recognition of someone else's birthday or similar, then you "throw a party" for them.


I'm having a party on Saturday. Would you like to come?
My neighbours had a party last night. The music was far too loud.
Shall we have a party for our wedding anniversary?

It's my mum's 60th birthday next month. I'm throwing a party for her.
My grandparents had been married for 50 years in August. We threw a great party for them.
 
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