on weekends/on a weekend

[kadioguy]

[My original sentences]

a. Sometimes we don't go anywhere on weekends. We just stay at home.
b. Sometimes we don't go anywhere on a weekend. We just stay at home.

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1. Do they mean the same?
2. Do they both sound natural?

An american friend told me:
We use (A). When you talk about things in general, you almost always use the indefinite plural form. (B) refers to a specific weekend, not just any weekend, so it wouldn't make much sense.
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Later on, I found this in Oxford Collocations Dictionary:

Weekend: PREPOSITION

at the weekend (BrE)
What are you doing at the weekend?

at weekends
What do you usually do at weekends?

on a weekend (BrE, informal)
The children play there on a weekend.

on the weekend (esp. AmE)
He called me on the weekend.

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So, is "on a weekend" used in BrE?

PS - I know that "weekend" is often used with "on" in AmE and is often used with "at" in BrE.

 

[Tarheel]

Your American friend is wrong. The phrase "a weekend" could mean any weekend. Also, "the weekend" could mean any weekend. (Both are used.)

 

[emsr2d2]

We don't use "on a weekend" or "on weekends" in BrE. I disagree with the dictionary's claim that "The children play there on a weekend" is used in informal BrE. We would say "The children play there at the weekend" or "The children play there at weekends".

 

[jutfrank]

Use the plural when you want to talk generally about when things happen:

I play tennis on Tuesdays.
We meet on Monday mornings.
I lie in on weekends.

Each sentence above is talking generally about what happens again and again.

Now, in your examples, both versions begin with Sometimes, which means that you cannot make a statement about what happens generally. Therefore, sentence a. is not possible because it doesn't make sense.

I play tennis on Tuesdays. :tick: = I play tennis every Tuesday

Sometimes I play tennis on Tuesdays. :cross: = Sometimes I play tennis every Tuesday (no sense)

Sometimes I play tennis on a Tuesday. :tick: = Some Tuesdays I play tennis and some Tuesdays I don't.

Is that clear?

 

[Tdol]

We don't use "on a weekend" or "on weekends" in BrE. I disagree with the dictionary's claim that "The children play there on a weekend" is used in informal BrE. We would say "The children play there at the weekend" or "The children play there at weekends".

We can like the song, but we don't use the prepositions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hn1BapsppXM

 

[jutfrank]

We don't use "on a weekend" or "on weekends" in BrE. I disagree with the dictionary's claim that "The children play there on a weekend" is used in informal BrE. We would say "The children play there at the weekend" or "The children play there at weekends".

I Ithink it is common and natural to say on a weekend in informal British English. It doesn't really work in the contexts of the examples in the quote above, though.

It's no different to on a Sunday or on a Friday night.

We like to go for a walk on a Sunday.
We sometimes see each other on a Friday night.