Contain vs hold

[franz]

Common Errors in English, Advanced Level

ESL/EFL Test #6 "At the Conference", question 6

For the most popular speakers the committee had decided to use the main hall that is capable of supporting at least 200 people.

(a) the most popular
(b) had decided
(c) main hall
(d) supporting

Common Errors in English, Advanced Level

ESL/EFL Test #6 "At the Conference", answer 6

For the most popular speakers the committee had decided to use the main hall that is capable of holding at least 200 people.

Correct entry: holding
The error was: (d) supporting

You have found the error but your entry is incorrect.
For the most popular speakers the committee had decided to use the main hall that is capable of containing at least 200 people.
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why not cotaining instead of holding?

[Alan]

Hi Franz,

This is an interesting question. Clearly as you saw, supporting is wrong but the question is why hold and not contain. The conventional word when referring to the seating capacity of a hall/stadium/theatre is hold when we are talking about people. Contain is used more for inanimate objects. We could put the two verbs together and say:

The theatre is capable of holding 2,000 people and contains several bars and the usual facilities.

Alan
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English as a Second Language
You can read my ESL story In touch

[lost_soul]

[FangFang]

well, as I know, accommodate has a meaning of providing somebody a room to live in . Does it mean something similar with "hold" or "contain"?????

[Conchita]

As FangFang rightly pointed out, 'accommodate' usually has the sense of providing lodging for someone: the hotel can accommodate sixty visitors. Yet the term also means 'hold/contain' and could have been used in the test sentence, as Lost Soul suggested.