Now, at the moment

[fglorca]

Are the sentences below correct? I’m not sure about ‘por el momento’.

• Es difícil encontrar un empleo ahora.
• Es difícil encontrar un empleo en este momento.
• Es difícil encontrar un empleo por el momento.

• Trabajo en una gasolinera ahora.
• Trabajo en una gasolinera en este momento.
• Trabajo en una gasolinera por el momento.

While I know ‘ahora’ and ‘en este momento’ both mean ‘now’ or ‘at the moment’, I think ‘por el momento’ might mean ‘for now’ which implies that I’m looking for a new job. Is this accurate?

Many thanks in advance.

[Julvenzor]

Todas esas oraciones están perfectas. Y sí, también entiende bien el matiz: "por momento" sugiere lo mismo que "por ahora". Con respecto a "ahora", le recomiendo que lo coloque delante del verbo. Solemos decir: Ahora es difícil, ahora trabajo... Así le brinda más énfasis a la situación actual.

Un saludo.

[Glen]

For whatever reason, I've heard a good many students of English say Right now... - which I hear as En este preciso momento... - when what they're talking about involves a much wider span of time than just this one exact moment.
I often wonder, where does that habit come from?

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

I often wonder, where does that habit come from?

Hmmm... maybe they feel "right now" somehow related to "por el momento", which is definitely not quite the same as "en este instante" or "en este preciso momento", but most of the time, unfortunately, people do not reflect much on what they say, but catch (bad) habits from a first idea of a word or expression. I think it's the same kind of impulse that leads us to say "I'm agree" and only through a lot of work and tough criticism from our teachers we finally internalize that's not a correct construction. :thinking: