Have you decided to stay with us (for) another year?

[kadioguy]

[From a TOEIC test]
A: Have you decided to stay with us another year?
B: I'm trying to get a job at another school for next year.

https://imgur.com/xf8C6yT

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Q1: How about "Have you decided to stay with us (for) another year"?
Is "for" here optional?

A friend told me that it is optional.

Q2: How about "I'm trying to get a job at another school for (the) next year"?

Friend: The sentence can have it or not, but removing it changes the meaning. If you keep the word "the", it sounds like you're talking about how long you'll be trying. Like, "From now and for the next year, I'll be trying...". If you remove the "the", it means "the job is for next year", if that makes sense.

Q3: How about "I'm trying to get a job at another school (for) next year"?
Is "for" here optional?

Friend: Not optional here, because it similarly changes the meaning if you remove it. If you remove it, it means "next year (2025) is when I'm going to try". But if you leave it, it means "the job is for 2025."
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What do you think?

 

[tedmc]

I agree with your friend.

 

[Tarheel]

Q1. Yes, but I strongly prefer "for" there.
Q2. I'm not sure why you want to include "the" there. Also, context always matters and would make it clear what was intended.
Q3. I would use "for" there. If I was talking about doing it next year I would say, "I'm going to do WXYZ next year."

 

[teechar]

Q1. It's optional.
Q2. I agree with Tarheel's answer above.
Q3. I would use "for". Otherwise, as Tarheel says, I would use some future structure (e.g. I'll be looking to get a job at another school next year).

 

[Tarheel]

@kadioguy is your friend real or imaginary?

 

[jutfrank]

Q1: How about "Have you decided to stay with us (for) another year"?
Is "for" here optional?

Yes. It's common to omit the preposition 'for' in duration phrases.

Q2: How about "I'm trying to get a job at another school for (the) next year"?

No, the article is wrong.

Friend: The sentence can have it or not, but removing it changes the meaning. If you keep the word "the", it sounds like you're talking about how long you'll be trying. Like, "From now and for the next year, I'll be trying...". If you remove the "the", it means "the job is for next year", if that makes sense.

Right.

Q3: How about "I'm trying to get a job at another school (for) next year"?
Is "for" here optional?

No. Don't ask whether words are 'optional'. Just ask whether you should use them or not.

Friend: Not optional here, because it similarly changes the meaning if you remove it. If you remove it, it means "next year (2025) is when I'm going to try". But if you leave it, it means "the job is for 2025."

I don't completely agree with that. The present continuous 'I'm trying' is enough to make it clear that the trying is happening presently, even with the omission of the preposition.

What I think your friend has picked up on is the two distinct meanings of the word 'year' in these two examples. In the first, the word 'year' is a duration, meaning a period of nine, ten, eleven, twelve months, i.e., however long one annual academic period at the school is. The phrase 'another year' is equivalent to, say, 'for another twelve months'. In the second, the word 'year' is not a duration but rather an event. The phrase 'next year' is similar to words like 'yesterday' and 'tomorrow'. These phrases are not exactly periods like two days or nine months. The latter sentence is equivalent to:

I'm trying to get a job for May.
I'm trying to get job for this summer.
I'm trying to get a job for the festival.

Thus, the preposition 'for' is also of a different meaning in these two cases.

 

[kadioguy]

@kadioguy is your friend real or imaginary?

We were talking about it on an APP called Discord, so I think that they are real. But who knows? I often think that life is like a dream, and that we are all daydreaming.

Don't ask whether words are 'optional'. Just ask whether you should use them or not.

I think that the two expressions are slightly different for me. Take this question for example, if I had said "Should I use it?" it would have meant to me that I had no idea about the answer, but "Is it optional?" meant that I already had an assumption that either using it or not using it might be OK, although I wasn't really sure about it - that's why I asked here.

 

[Tarheel]

I think I know where Jutfrank is coming from. Nevertheless, we say "the" (for example) is optional when it's a matter of personal choice whether to use it or not.