days off work

[Encolpius]

Hello,

you can say I too a few days off work.

My question is if you can use any word instead of work?
So if I work in a school, office, hospital can I say:

I took two days off school, hospital, office etc.

Thank you.

[Ann1977]

Hello,

you can say I too a few days off work.

My question is if you can use any word instead of work?
So if I work in a school, office, hospital can I say:

I took two days off school, hospital, office etc.

Thank you.

I don't think any of these others would be used.

- I took two days off from school.
- I took two days off from housework.
- I had two days off from/shopping/exercising/jogging/listening to the boss.

- I had a few days off from the office/from the hospital.
- I had two days off from the Army/from the shop/from the garage.

[Daruma]

Great examples, Ann.

- take XXX days off from ...
- have XXX days off from ...

Do these mean the same thing?

[PROESL]

Great examples, Ann.

- take XXX days off from ...
- have XXX days off from ...

Do these mean the same thing?

For practical purposes, they're likely interchangeable most of the time. Here's the difference in meaning:

We have ten days off from work in August. - This is simply an acknowledgement that the speakers have ten days off in August.

We're taking ten days off from work in August. - This means that the speakers are not just acknowledging that they have ten days off, but that they somehow had a hand in the decision making: 1. They asked the manager if they could use ten vacation days in August. 2. They're self-employed and have decided to take tens days off in August. And who knows what other way they could explain the days off? The point is that they had a hand in making the decision in some way. It could've been a request, a choice, or their decision completely.

[Ann1977]

That's right. You don't "choose" to HAVE some time off work -- you decide to TAKE some time off.

"Why are you home today?"

- "Oh, I decided to take a couple of days off from school."
- "I thought I'd take a couple of days off."
- "I wanted to take a few days off from studying."
(I took the time off as my own decision.)

BUT:
- "We always have the day after Thanksgiving off."
- "We get the day after Thanksgiving off every year."
- "The school always lets us have the day after Thanksgiving off."
(This time off was granted.)