ESL General English Grammar Questions

Re: We are under the gun to get this project finished at work.

optilang — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 11:51:26 GMT

Peaceblinkfriend
Thank you for your replies.

Just to be certain that I completely understand this. The other interpretation of the phrase is that it only serves to tell us where the project belongs to, am I correct?

Thanks again

PBF

We are under the gun to get this project finished at work.

The two interpretations I see are:

a) the project must be finished at work - at the place of work, during work hours. The project cannot be taken out of the work place and worked on outside normal working hours, so you couldn't take it home and then try to claim overtime. It does allow for the possibility to claim overtime if the work carried out is done at the place of work.

b) at work refers to your job. So, in the course of work duties, there is a high priority attached to the completion of the project.

Re: We are under the gun to get this project finished at work.

Marius Hancu — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 11:50:51 GMT

The original sentence is poor as it is ambiguous.

It can mean that you have problems at work, or that you can't take the project home to work on it:

Write, if you mean you have problems at work:

We are under the gun at work to get this project finished.

At work, we are under the gun to get this project finished.

For the other:

We are under the gun to get this project finished, and we're not allowed to take it home.

We are under the gun to get this project finished, and we're not allowed to work on it at home.

Re: We are under the gun to get this project finished at work.

Peaceblinkfriend — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 11:39:28 GMT

Thank you for your replies.

Just to be certain that I completely understand this. The other interpretation of the phrase is that it only serves to tell us where the project belongs to, am I correct?

Thanks again

PBF

Re: We are under the gun to get this project finished at work.

optilang — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 10:42:56 GMT

Peaceblinkfriend
We are under the gun to get this project finished at work.

Does the inclusion of 'at work' means that the project can only be worked on in office hours?

Thank you

PBF

It could be interpreted like that. But I interpret it to mean as part of my work/job.

Things are a little difficult at work. We have too much to do, and we don't have the necessary resources.

Re: We are under the gun to get this project finished at work.

Marius Hancu — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 10:41:02 GMT

No, it only means at the place of work.

Use italics for your examples.

We are under the gun to get this project finished at work.

Peaceblinkfriend — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 10:24:51 GMT

We are under the gun to get this project finished at work.

Does the inclusion of 'at work' means that the project can only be worked on in office hours?

Thank you

PBF

[Edit] italicised example