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I have the following sentences in my grammar book:

We are going on holiday on Saturday. Could you look after the cat for us?

I have two questions:

  1. Is it possible to understand what period of time there was speaking about? A weekend or two weeks? I'm asking about typical situation for that context.
  2. Does the question "Could you look after the cat for us?" sound idiomatic? Doesn't "Could you look after our cat?" sound better?
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    Going on holiday normally refers to a one or two week vacation, not just a weekend (2 days, or perhaps 3-4 days if We're going for a long weekend). Whether to mention the "ownership" of the cat, and/or the "beneficiary" of the sought favour, are entirely personal stylistic choices. Both those additional facts are probably obvious, whether explicitly stated or not, so the stylistic choice of how to express the request doesn't really affect the meaning.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Aug 3, 2022 at 10:15
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    I was always taught this type of question should be askes as Would you ... rather than Could you,. The reasoning is simple, "I could look after your cat, but I won't because I'm allergic to them" Could inquires about a possibility, Would requests an action.
    – Peter Jennings
    Commented Aug 3, 2022 at 12:30
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    @PeterJennings although technically that is the case, native speakers regularly use "could" as a polite request.
    – Esther
    Commented Aug 3, 2022 at 17:06
  • @Esther Yes I'm a native BrE speaker and I hear it all the time, but it doesn't make it right. "Would" is just as polite and can be met with refusal just the same. My point is that here on ELL we are trying to help the OPs use the best English. I'm sorry, but having a mother and 2 aunts who were teachers, hearing my language mangled daily even on the BBC, grates.
    – Peter Jennings
    Commented Aug 4, 2022 at 1:00

1 Answer 1

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  1. On Saturday marks the beginning of the holiday. It does not state its duration.

  2. for us is definitely idiomatic. Cambridge says it is used to mean:

in order to help someone:

  • My sister will take care of the dog for us while we're away.
  • Let me carry those bags for you.

It has slightly the notion in of do it in our place until we come back.

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  • Does "Could you look after our cat?" has a different notion that you mentioned from "Could you look after the cat for us?"
    – Sergei
    Commented Aug 3, 2022 at 10:11
  • It is more neutral, more indefinite. Adding for us makes it more temporary.
    – fev
    Commented Aug 3, 2022 at 10:13

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