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Anonymous Posted 14 years ago
Grammar

"Employment" in plural?

A student of mine used the word "employments" in a paper, as in "He had several employments." The word is being used as a synonym for "jobs."

This sounds wrong to me, but I can't document it. Can anyone help?
  

Top answer

It's not idiomatic. Clive

— Clive

  • It's not idiomatic.
  • Clive
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9 Answers
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Hi,

Tell him we don't say that.It's not idiomatic.


Clive
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That's what I thought, but is there any way to document that it is not idiomatic?
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Hi,

Try googling around a bit, and see what you find. And check a few dictionaries.

Does this student accept nothing from you that is not in writing somewhere else?
Must make the lessons a lot of fun!
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The student already knows its wrong, I'm just trying to document it for my own future reference.
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Nugso, did you notice that the Oxford link you posted says that employment can be a count noun, not just a mass noun, which is exactly the distinction on which I was basing my initial negative judgment of "employments.". I'm still suspicious of using the word as a count noun.
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Yes, I did.

noun

[mass noun] 1the state of having paid work:.

[count noun] a person’s trade or profession:

I don't think the student meant the second one.
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Anonymous"He had several employments." The word is being used as a synonym for "jobs."
My takes is this. That is a reasonable assumption. But it is also ambiguous in my opinion. Does underlined mean he had worked for different employers before, or he had several employment opportunities before that didn't materialize? . If you said: He had several employ
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A follow up correction to my last post:
This is my take....(from takes)
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