for the moment and overseas

[Jiayun]

Hi all,

Someone asked me "Are you interested in working in New York?"

Can I say "I am afraid I am not considering to work in the overseas cities for the moment"?

Thanks!

JY

[Rover_KE]

'I'm not considering working anywhere overseas at the moment.'

Rover

[Jiayun]

Thanks!

I have checked the dictionary (moment noun (OCCASION) - definition in British English Dictionary & Thesaurus - Cambridge Dictionary Online) and it says at the moment means now and for the moment means "If you do something for the moment, you are doing it now, but might do something different in the future". So I think "for the moment" is more appropriate as I might consider working in overseas cities in the future. What do you think?

'I'm not considering working anywhere overseas at the moment.'

Rover

[SoothingDave]

"At the moment" is the correct expression here. It also denotes that the situation could change in the future.

If there was not the possiblilty of change, you would simply say "I'm not considering working overseas." Period. The fact that you add "at the moment" means that this could change in the future.

[Jiayun]

Thanks! However, I do not understand why I cannot use for the moment here. What is the difference between at the moment and for the moment?

"At the moment" is the correct expression here. It also denotes that the situation could change in the future.

If there was not the possiblilty of change, you would simply say "I'm not considering working overseas." Period. The fact that you add "at the moment" means that this could change in the future.

[SoothingDave]

"At" is the natural preposition in this example. The idea is that "right now" I am not considering...

[5jj]

I have nothing against 'for the moment' - and COCA has 2,788 citations.

[Jiayun]

Thanks! Could you let me know what COCA is?

I have nothing against 'for the moment' - and COCA has 2,788 citations.

[tzfujimino]

Thanks! Could you let me know what COCA is?

Hello, again.
Please go to: Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA)
I find it very useful.

[Jiayun]

Most amazing!! This is really very helpful. I never know this kind of website does exist. It is similar to a search engine I used in university which helped me search through different newspapers but it was not for free.

Hello, again.
Please go to: Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA)
I find it very useful.