student asking question

Isn't it supposed to be "whose job is" rather than "whose job it is"? I'm not sure, but I think it's grammatically incorrect.

teacher

Native speaker’s answer

Rebecca

Both of them are correct and both are commonly used. If you switch the relative clause "whose job it is" into a main clause it could read as: "It is [someone's] job." But since the determiner "whose" is used, it becomes "whose job it is." There is also a slight difference in nuances. "Whose job is" could make it sound like that it's that person's <only> job. Whereas "whose job it is" can refer to just one of their jobs and not all of them. But you can also use them interchangeably if referring to one job. Ex: We have an intern whose job it is to print documents for us. => This is only one of the intern's tasks. Ex: We have an intern whose job is to print documents. => This makes it sound like this is their only job.

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