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Well paying jobs

Posted by Baceseras on January 25, 2010 at 13:20

In Reply to: Well paying jobs posted by David FG on January 25, 2010 at 10:22:

: : : : The American Petroleum Institute (API) has a series of television ads where the spokesperson talks about "well paying jobs." To my ear that phrase sounds incorrect. "Good paying jobs" sounds correct. Recently U.S. President Obama used "well paying jobs" in a televised speech. Anyone have any comments?

: : : Neither sounds quite right to me. I would say 'well-paid jobs'.

: : : DFG

: : To a grammar stickler, "good paying jobs" can only be good jobs that also happen to pay (unlike good non-paying jobs) since good is an adjective it must modify jobs and not paying. Well-paid jobs sound like they're over and done with to me. I did the job and was well paid. Now what am I going to do next week?

: I see your point, but 'well-paid jobs' is firmly idiomatic, I think.

: 'There are still well-paid jobs to be had in the banking sector' would be, in my opinion, a perfectly unexceptionable sentence and one that would be familiar to most Eastpondians at least.

: DFG

["Well paying jobs" comes about because speakers are trying to avoid the awkward manoeuvre of inserting "jobs that pay well" into a sentence. I note with a sigh that sentences on the topic of the availability of jobs come with a great array of hedges and qualifications. Spokespersons (or their ghostwriters) lack the patience to fuss with a lot of clauses in "that" or "which" : thus, "well paying jobs" and other compressed jargon. - Bac.]

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