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I am an ESL student and I wonder what the following sentence means.

During 1985 to 1988 , I worked at X company

Does it mean that 1988 was included?

I am not quite sure about the meaning since when this sentence was translated into my language, it meant that the person stopped their work in the beginning of 1988. However, I thought it meant that 1988 is included.

RegDwigнt
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Gap Sntin
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    Please say where you read this sentence. Is it from an English course book, was it a phrases dictated by the teacher, did you read it on a newspaper etc.? To my ears saying "During X to X" is quite odd. – Mari-Lou A Dec 13 '13 at 06:22
  • I found it on a CV, and I was asked to translate these into my language. I am glade for your interest. Thank you. – Gap Sntin Dec 13 '13 at 07:03
  • Was the CV written by a native speaker? – Mari-Lou A Dec 13 '13 at 07:07
  • I am sorry. I am not sure – Gap Sntin Dec 13 '13 at 07:08
  • Could you, please, help me. Mari-Lou A. If this sentence was written by a native speaker, what is the true meaning that the author tries to convey ? – Gap Sntin Dec 13 '13 at 07:16
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    I would normally say: "Between 1985 to 1988 I worked at X company" Basically that person was employed for three years. Otherwise, I would use the structure, "from 1985 to 1988". My best guess is that the candidate is saying he worked until 1988. We don't know when his contract terminated. – Mari-Lou A Dec 13 '13 at 07:18
  • Do you mean that it is possible that the person might work from the beginning of the year 1985, and he/she might finish his/her work at some point during 1988. – Gap Sntin Dec 13 '13 at 07:26
  • He doesn't say. His period of employment could have ended in the first week of January for all we know. – Mari-Lou A Dec 13 '13 at 07:29
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    "Between 1985 and 1988 . . . – Edwin Ashworth Dec 13 '13 at 11:02
  • A native speaker would probably not use *during 1985 to 1988* but *from 1985 to 1988*. Since this was not written by somebody with a good command of English, I don't think there is any way to know exactly what it means. – Peter Shor Dec 13 '13 at 14:08
  • Interestingly related: http://english.stackexchange.com/q/30927/8019. – Tim Lymington Dec 13 '13 at 15:34
  • Oops mea culpa. Thank you @EdwinAshworth It is of course between X and X – Mari-Lou A Dec 13 '13 at 19:48

3 Answers3

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The phrasing indicates that employment at X began sometime between 1985-01-01 and 1985-12-31, and ended sometime between 1988-01-01 and 1988-12-31.

Best usage would be to use common date notations on a CV, with the dates abutting each other.

For example:

  • From 1985 to 1988 he worked at X.
  • From 1988 to 1993 he worked at Y.

This describes the broadest outlines of employment, although it does allow for anywhere between a period of unemployment nearly a year long, or almost an entire year's overlap between employers.

RegDwigнt
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DougM
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    I think it should be stated more explicitly, or really at all, that "during 1985 to 1988" is not English. Also, no space goes before a comma in English (or really any other language). So OP is trying to analyze a sentence written by someone who has no command of the language at all. No wonder he finds it confusing. – RegDwigнt Dec 13 '13 at 10:02
  • I'd also contend that if you say 'to 1988', employment could end '31 December 1987' if 1988 is treated as an excluded upper bound. Especially so with something like a CV (while it's a formal document, it's not written according to a style-guide or ran by an editor). – anotherdave Dec 13 '13 at 13:30
  • The sentence was ran through a translator at least once, folks. OP was asking about the idiom, not the known-to-be-bad grammar. – DougM Dec 13 '13 at 17:54
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Yes, 1988 is included in the span of work at X company.

Priyanka Sonawane
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I got the impression that it means someone started work for a company, sometime in 1985 and stopped sometime in 1988. I wrote the word sometimes because, no particular date in 1985 or 1988 was included.

The way it is written is a little awkward. To sound more natural, I would word it as From 1985 to 1988, I worked for X company, and write the name of the particular company where you have written "X company".

Tristan r
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