I've already been through

Question

Can you please explain 'through '?Brian: How's your job search going?Peter: It sucks, Brian. I've already been through two jobs this week. I got fired off of that commercial.Cuts to Peter in a bird outfit in front of a camera.Director: Try it again.

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

to have been through something is to have experienced it, especially when what was experienced was negative.

I've been through some of the worst times of my life since I've lived here.
(I've experienced some of ....)
She knew her mother had been through a lot and that her mental health had suffered.
(Her mother had experienced a lot of bad times, and ....)
You have obviously been through your own personal nightmare with that situation.
(You have experienced something like a nightmare ....)

to have been through something (often plural) is also to have something happen (sometimes more than once sequentially).

The case has been through two high courts and two courts of appeal.
(All four of these processes have been applied (happened) to the case.)
This home has been through foreclosure, and the lender is selling it.
(The process of foreclosure has happened to this home, and ....)
We've been through boyfriend breakups, apartment break-ins, and career changes.
(All of these things happened to us.)

Of course the two meanings are really just different ways of looking at the same meaning:

I had been through a bone-marrow transplant and was on the mend.
(I experienced the transplant OR The transplant happened to me.)

So in your example the speaker got a job and lost it, then got another job and lost it, all in one week. He had been through two unpleasant experiences OR these experiences happened to him, whichever way you want to look at it.

CJ

I've already been through

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