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Contain vs hold



 
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Contain vs hold #1 (permalink) Sat Jan 21, 2006 10:11 am   Contain vs hold
 

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.
_________________________

why not cotaining instead of holding?
franz
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Contain/hold #2 (permalink) Sat Jan 21, 2006 11:50 am   Contain/hold
 

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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Contain/hold #3 (permalink) Wed Sep 20, 2006 7:39 am   Contain/hold
 

Alan wrote:
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

How about "accommodating" (I can say "The building can accommodate all of the guests") ???
Lost_Soul
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Contain vs hold #4 (permalink) Thu Sep 21, 2006 16:25 pm   Contain vs hold
 

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"????? Rolling Eyes Rolling Eyes
FangFang
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Hold/contain/accommodate #5 (permalink) Fri Sep 22, 2006 11:26 am   Hold/contain/accommodate
 

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.
Conchita
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