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Confused by this question, I find it difficult to ask a question about a number of occasions (about a single occasion, in particular) when there is a specific answer expected.

It's my first time in Ukraine.

I don't want to ask

Is this your first time in Ukraine?

Is this your first visit to Ukraine?

Have you ever been to Ukraine [before]?

because it can be answered shortly with a yes-no answer. I am looking for an idiomatic question structure starting with "what/which time/occasion", if there is any.

My abortive attempts like

What/Which time is it for you in Ukraine?

What/Which occasion is it for you in Ukraine?

sound awful and look completely incorrect.

The last time we went to Paris, it rained every day.

Suppose I know that they've been to Paris several times and that one of their trips was spoiled by [the ?] rain. I want to know exactly on which occasion it happened. How would I ask it?

My suggestion

On which occasion did it rain every day?

is just hilarious.

I am completely lost.

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  • 1
    Have you looked at the answers to the question you link to?
    – Solar Mike
    Mar 9, 2019 at 18:41
  • 1
    How many times have you [etc.]?
    – Lambie
    Mar 9, 2019 at 18:54
  • @SolarMike yes, I've just reviewed them - none of those really helped me. fred2's answer did a great job answering how to ask about amounts. But it's slightly different from what I am asking here. Answers to the question type I am requesting usually include an ordinal number (first time, hundredth time).
    – Andrew Tobilko
    Mar 9, 2019 at 19:00
  • @Lambie would it be fine if I replied "[I've been there] twice" to this?
    – Andrew Tobilko
    Mar 9, 2019 at 19:03
  • Then adjust and add a number as necessary...
    – Solar Mike
    Mar 9, 2019 at 19:03

2 Answers 2

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Answering this question, and this one, it did occur to me that there is a gap in English id you want to express a particular occasion when something happened in the form of a question. However, in real life, you would be able to work around it based on what you already knew.

For your Ukraine question, I would say:

How many times have you been in Ukraine? [If this is their 5th trip, they will answer with '5'.]

If you want to deal with events which happened on an unspecified occasion during one of the trips, things get a bit trickier. But actually, your 'hilarious' suggestion is perfectly good. It sounds a bit formal, but grammatically it is fine. Here are some alternatives.

On which occasion was it that it rained every day?

Which time did it rain the most?

Which visit was the rainiest?

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If you want the answer to be a count/number you are going to have to use "how many" to make a normal-sounding question. Like "How many times have you been to Ukraine?", which is basically how fred2 answered the question you linked to.

To answer your second question, you'd probably want to figure out how many times they've been to Paris, then ask them something along the lines of "which time/trip did it rain every day?"

It's a pretty weird thing to be asking people about but if you want to, go ahead.

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