How to say "to work for"


I would like to say `"I work for" company X`.

I have found two ways of saying that:

  * `仕える` -> _company-name_ に仕える
  * `勤める` -> _company-name_ に勤める

But I can't find which one is correct or where to correctly use those
expressions.

Can someone please help me out and explain the difference between the two?

Many thanks.




If you would like to just say “work for (company name)”, you can say:

  1. 私は(company name) で働いています。
  2. 私は(company name) に勤めています。

Both are natural. I think 2 is little bit more formal but 1 is also not so
casual word.

On the other hand, “(company name)に仕える” sounds incorrect if you simply work
for a regular company/public organization. Because “仕える” means “work for noble
people/god” so you can only use this word in limited situations like those
below:

「私は神に仕えています」(she must be a sister and works at a church (in the case of
Christian))

「私は王女に仕えています」(you may can imagine how rarely people work for queens)

In the old age in Japan, about 400 years ago, Samurai worked for their
domain/shogunate and that was called “藩/幕府に仕える”. It has shown that were
absolute being at that time. Unfortunately we contemporary persons cannot
normally use “仕える”.

If you said “(company name)に仕えています”, I would laugh and say “Hey, are you a
knight or something of the company?”.

Hope this helps you.




If you would like to just say “work for (company name)”, you can say:

  1. 私は(company name) で働いています。
  2. 私は(company name) に勤めています。

Both are natural. I think 2 is little bit more formal but 1 is also not so
casual word.

On the other hand, “(company name)に仕える” sounds incorrect if you simply work
for a regular company/public organization. Because “仕える” means “work for noble
people/god” so you can only use this word in limited situations like those
below:

「私は神に仕えています」(she must be a sister and works at a church (in the case of
Christian))

「私は王女に仕えています」(you may can imagine how rarely people work for queens)

In the old age in Japan, about 400 years ago, Samurai worked for their
domain/shogunate and that was called “藩/幕府に仕える”. It has shown that were
absolute being at that time. Unfortunately we contemporary persons cannot
normally use “仕える”.

If you said “(company name)に仕えています”, I would laugh and say “Hey, are you a
knight or something of the company?”.

Hope this helps you.

