Thank you always!
I'd like to know how to use "disadvantage" in the sentence appropriately.
"People often have difficulty in returning to their jobs or getting promoted after giving birth and raising their children."
"People often have disadvantage of going back to their jobs and getting promoted to their positions after giving birth and raising their children."
Are both grammatical? Do they have the same meaning?
I would appreciate your reply.
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Hi, Mika. Only the first one "People often have difficulty in returning to their jobs or getting promoted after giving birth and raising their children." is correct.
@f6pafd posted:Hi, Mika. Only the first one "People often have difficulty in returning to their jobs or getting promoted after giving birth and raising their children." is correct.
To add to f6pafd's correct answer, unlike "difficulty," which can be uncountable and take the zero article, the singular noun "disadvantage" will always need a definite or indefinite article or some other determiner, for example:
- People often have the disadvantage of not being able to return to their jobs or (of) not getting promoted after giving birth and raising their children.
Notice that the sentence with "disadvantage" in the opening post is also inconsistent because the disadvantage consists of NOT being able to get back to work or to get promoted. Also, "getting promoted to their (previous/current) positions" does not make sense.
Instead, people find difficulty in getting something positive, which is returning to their jobs and getting promoted (by definition, to a new, higher position).
Thank you so much!
Dear Mr.Gustavo,
Thank you so much for your reply!
It is very useful to understand "disadvantage" in detail.
Is it OK if I say "People often have some difficulties when going back to their jobs".
I understand that we can't say "People often have some difficulties in going back to their jobs", because "difficulty" is uncountable in this context.
But I think we can use "difficulty" as a countable noun in some cases.
I would appreciate your advise.
Mika
@mika posted:Is it OK if I say "People often have some difficulties when going back to their jobs".
Yes, it is OK (you can also say "have difficulties"), but different in meaning from People often have difficulty in going back to their jobs.
"Have difficulty (in) going back to their jobs" means it is hard for them to go back to their jobs (they are unable to get back to work). "Have difficulties when going back to their jobs" means they encounter difficulties while or after returning to work, but having these difficulties does not imply that they cannot get back to work.
@mika posted:I understand that we can't say "People often have some difficulties in going back to their jobs", because "difficulty" is uncountable in this context.
Although much less usual than "have difficulty (in) V-ing," I don't think "have (some) difficulties (in) V-ing" is incorrect, but only perhaps less idiomatic.
Thank you so much!!
