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using 'off' or 'from' in a sentence

English Language & Usage Asked by FutureCake on March 11, 2021

I am not a native english speaker and was wondering in the following sentence if the word off or from is used see below what i think is correct.

Jumping off the ship on the right time.

or

Jumping from the ship on the right time.

It is in the context of someone leaving a company when it gets rough. It is in a friendly context if that makes any difference.

2 Answers

The joys of prepositions!

You may jump from a ship, from a train, from a step, from a height. You jumped in a direction whose starting point is defined by "from".

You may also jump off them. You were on; after you jump you are off.

You may do something "at the right time": it is done when the time is right. "at" refers to a particular time (e.g. at ten o'clock, at the beginning of the year, at the dawn of time, at the time I married etc).

You do not do something on the right time even though the expression is confusingly close to expressions such as "The train arrived on time", "the plane left on time", both of which tell you that the time was the same as that predicted "on" a timetable.

So "you jumped off the ship at the right time" is the correct conventional version.

Correct answer by Anton on March 11, 2021

Both off and from make sense, but honestly it doesn't sound like native language. We have shortened this expression to "jumping ship" as in "I can't believe you would jump ship right when we are about to hit the big time!"

Also, "on the right time" is inaccurate, "at the right time" is more natural. So "She was interested in jumping ship at the right time" is how I would revise that sentence.

Answered by Bill Kelvin on March 11, 2021

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