[General] all one's life vs in one's whole life

[maoyueh]

Are the sentences below acceptable, or natural? Thank you.

1. Working for the same company all one’s life is better than changing jobs every so often.
2. Working for the same company in one’s whole life is better than changing jobs all the time.

 

[5jj]

#1 is fine. #2 is not natural.

 

[maoyueh]

#1 is fine. #2 is not natural.

Thank you. #2 is not natural, but is it acceptable? In fact, I keyed in the search string "in your whole life" in COCA and found there are 31 citations; their sources are quite well known, such as Commentary, Cosmopolitan, Parenting, Southwest Review and USAToday.

I'm sorry for being inquisitive. Thank you again.

 

[5jj]

Thank you. #2 is not natural, but is it acceptable?

That is a strange question. if something is unnatural, who would want to accept it?

In fact, I keyed in the search string "in your whole life" in COCA and found there are 31 citations; their sources are quite well known, such as Commentary, Cosmopolitan, Parenting, Southwest Review and USAToday.

Fine. That does not mean that 'in your whole life' is natural in your sentence. It isn't; "for your whole life' is.

 

[emsr2d2]

You could say "I [have] only worked for one company in my whole/entire life" but it doesn't work with the construction that you used in #2.

 

[maoyueh]

Hi, 5jj, emsr2d2, Tdol, Rover_KE, BobK, probus, MikeNewYork and other language experts, thank you very much. So far I have benefited a lot from this Forum. All the best!