timtak
Member
- Joined
- Oct 30, 2005
- Member Type
- English Teacher
- Native Language
- British English
- Home Country
- England
- Current Location
- Japan
I have been correcting my students when they say that they "work a part time job" telling them that they should say that they "do a part time job."
However, I just checked Google and find that there are quite a few hits for "work a job." Many of them are of the form "work a job fair," which is a different kind of usage,
But there are also people saying things like
"I work a job that in no way describes me or determines who I am as a person."
"I work a job that makes the rest of these on this post look pretty damn interesting."
Is this usage correct? Is it correct to say "I work a job"? Or should one say "I do a job"?
PS
For me if someone says "I work a part time job" or "I am working a part time job" then it sounds like they are using the part time job (work a piece of machinery) or making the most out of their part time job, perhaps even decieving the manager (I think that con men are said to "work a mark"), and not simply doing their part time job. E.g. "I really needed money for my heroin addiction, so I worked that part time job like there was no tomorrow, taking home office stationery, raiding the till, and even stealing from my co-workers." Again if a "job" is a bank job, or other often illegal endeavour, then "Sid is working a job right now, tunnelling under the Ealing branch of Lloyds," also sounds grammatically correct.
But then Americans say "Good job" when I would say "Well done." So perhaps the reason why people are using "I work a job" is not because the usage of "work" is different, but that their usage of job, is in this case refering to something like "bank job," in the above, that is to say an endeavour but not a nefarious one. For me "a job" when used as a word for an endeavour rather than a type of employment, refers to an otherwise unmentionable endeavour, such as in the famously unmentionable "big job."
Also I think that I could say "I work at a job that I enjoy," where I would be kind of using "job" as workplace, or company. But at the same time "working at a job" sounds a bit like I am "working at getting promotion", or "working at achieving my dreams," and not the same as simply doing the job.
However, I just checked Google and find that there are quite a few hits for "work a job." Many of them are of the form "work a job fair," which is a different kind of usage,
But there are also people saying things like
"I work a job that in no way describes me or determines who I am as a person."
"I work a job that makes the rest of these on this post look pretty damn interesting."
Is this usage correct? Is it correct to say "I work a job"? Or should one say "I do a job"?
PS
For me if someone says "I work a part time job" or "I am working a part time job" then it sounds like they are using the part time job (work a piece of machinery) or making the most out of their part time job, perhaps even decieving the manager (I think that con men are said to "work a mark"), and not simply doing their part time job. E.g. "I really needed money for my heroin addiction, so I worked that part time job like there was no tomorrow, taking home office stationery, raiding the till, and even stealing from my co-workers." Again if a "job" is a bank job, or other often illegal endeavour, then "Sid is working a job right now, tunnelling under the Ealing branch of Lloyds," also sounds grammatically correct.
But then Americans say "Good job" when I would say "Well done." So perhaps the reason why people are using "I work a job" is not because the usage of "work" is different, but that their usage of job, is in this case refering to something like "bank job," in the above, that is to say an endeavour but not a nefarious one. For me "a job" when used as a word for an endeavour rather than a type of employment, refers to an otherwise unmentionable endeavour, such as in the famously unmentionable "big job."
Also I think that I could say "I work at a job that I enjoy," where I would be kind of using "job" as workplace, or company. But at the same time "working at a job" sounds a bit like I am "working at getting promotion", or "working at achieving my dreams," and not the same as simply doing the job.
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