Tuesday, November 12, 2013

word choice - Ideally, how old would the company you work for be?



Let's say I'm asking people about characteristics of their ideal workplace.




"Ideally, how old would the company you work for be?"



"Ideally, how many people would also work at the company you work for?"





Personally, this sounds rather awkward. I'd attribute it to the item in question being "the company you work for" as it ends with "for". Any clean-sounding, easily understandable alternatives here?



I was thinking about "How old would your ideal company be?" or "How long would your ideal company have been in business?" but these don't really convey the fact that the person would actually be employed there.


Answer



I've never liked ending sentences with prepositions, whether it's an unfortunate idea or not. I'd rework the first one to be:




Ideally, how old would the company for which you work be?





^ this syntax being how I generally avoid ending with a preposition.



As for the second one,




Ideally, how many other people would work at the company for which you work?



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