Change jobs vs Change my job

Language English Grammar & Usage
1

Double busted.

2 Likes
2

Borderline. Need a second opinion.

3

Is “change job” proper English?

@discobot fortune

4

:crystal_ball: Cannot predict now

5

Well, English isn’t your first language anyway…

6

Why is it “jobs” though? I agree it is but for the life of me I’ve no idea why…

7

I guess because you’re switching from one job to another, so there are two jobs involved.

2 Likes
8

a quirk of english where you can’t refer to a singular of something without an article or possessive. ‘i like car’ = bad, ‘i like cars’ = good. ‘change job’ = bad, ‘change my job’ = good. ‘change a job’ = grammatically ok but weird.

9

I don’t know. This seems a little weird too.

10

‘ugh i want to change my job’ is grammatically fine and is fine to use as well, although it isn’t as used as much as ‘change jobs’. you can google search ‘change my job’ and you will see a lot of places where that snippet is used. ‘change job’ is not grammatically correct - it doesn’t have anything to do with two jobs being involved, it’s that you can’t use the singular ‘job’ by itself.

11

Problem is, the meaning seems ambiguous. It could mean I want to change the nature, duties etc. of my current job.

A google search is hardly the arbiter of good grammar.

12

it is grammatically fine. it might sound odd to you and it isn’t as used as much as ‘change jobs’, but that doesn’t make it incorrect to use.

‘quit my job’ = standard way to say this.
‘quit job’ = grammatically wrong (note that in this case there is only one job, so by your explanation, this should be fine, but it isn’t).

‘change my job’ = grammatically ok but might sound weird.
‘change jobs’ = standard way to say this.
‘change job’ = grammatically wrong because of the incorrect use of a singular.

13

OK, endy, feel free to use “change my job” the next time you want to change jobs. I won’t hold you back. :sunglasses:

14

You could change to a new job, too.

15

i use ‘change jobs’ like you do. i’m just explaining english rules that’s all. there’s a difference between what’s grammatically correct/incorrect and what merely sounds weird.

16

Actually, I prefer “switch jobs.” :grin:

17

The term we language professionals prefer is “idiomatic” :slight_smile:

“Change my name” seems ok. I’m sure we could think of others. I would say that “change my job” is unidiomatic. “Get a new job”, “quit my job” seem more likely.

Maybe we can’t really “change” things external to us. “Change my hairstyle” seems good, but not “change my car.”

1 Like
18

Where does “I love lamp” fit in all of this?