Thanks to Markus’ very kind recommendation on Der Englisch Blog, last week’s Grammar guru question went off like a rocket: What’s the best alternative to “You don’t really need to register for the event”?
- “You don’t necessarily have to register for the event.” (86%, 36 Votes)
- “You mustn’t register for the event.” (14%, 6 Votes)
Thanks to everyone who voted or joined the discussion. Mustn’t forbids doing something, don’t have to + needn’t allow you NOT to do something.
This week the question is, which one is better:
- Why did you change jobs?
- Why did you change the job?
3 Responses
“Change jobs” and “change the job” are currently both at 50%.
So here’s a tip:
Only one means to stop working for one company or department and start working for another (=den Job wechseln). The other could perhaps mean to change the job description of one and the same job.
Back to you!
Sometimes grammar issues are really idiomatic (=Redewendungen) and more “lexical” (word-related) than “logical”. So for this kind of question, I recommend using the Macmillan widget. This is what you find there for “change”:
1. to become different, or to make someone or something different
2. to stop doing one thing and start doing something different: Dave said he might be changing jobs.
3. change (something) to something:
I changed the order to once a year instead of quarterly.
Consumers are increasingly changing to low-fat milk.
4. to replace something with a new or different thing
I’m sick of these curtains – let’s change them.
5. If you change a bed or change the sheets, you put clean sheets, covers etc on the bed
Also see this Google search for “Why did you change jobs?”
OMG, the votes are still split almost down the middle!
There are many Englishes around the world, so there may be people who say “Why did you change the job?” someplace.
Ansonsten: Es heißt wirklich (echt!) “Why did you change jobs?”, und scheint ein wirklicher (echter!) Fall für einen Grammar guru zu sein.
Vielen Dank fürs Mitmachen 🙂