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I'm currently doing a job of designing a website.

Here, can I say like this?

  1. Designing a website is what I spend most of my time at.

  2. Designing a website is what I spend most of my time doing.

which one is more proper?

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    In the first sentence it would probably be better to say: designing a website is how I spend most of my time.
    – Vlammuh
    Aug 5, 2015 at 10:34

2 Answers 2

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Ideally you would reverse the construction to remove the extra clause. Something like

I spend most of my time designing websites

However, you could use a construction like yours for emphasis. Imagine this conversation:

"You should build experience before you look for a job. Try designing a website."

"But designing a website is what I spend most of my time doing!"

It's a little awkward, but it works. Either way, I would avoid your first construction, simply because it needlessly ends a sentence with a preposition. This is a rule that is often broken in American English, but if it's easy to avoid, do so.

As Winston Churchill probably did not actually say:

Ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I will not put.

Edited to add

As Ahmad pointed out in his answer and in the comments, it would be more common to use "designing websites" here, to say that you are generally designing an unspecified number of websites. to say that you spend most of your time "designing a website" means that there is a single website that you work on and it consumes a lot of your time. If that is what you mean, it would be clearer to specify which website.

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  • You mean it could be "Designing a website is what I spend most of my time"?
    – Ahmad
    Aug 5, 2015 at 14:25
  • As I said in my answer, could it be "Designing websites is what I spend most of my time doing"?
    – Ahmad
    Aug 5, 2015 at 14:32
  • You first comment does not work because there is nothing tying "most of my time" back to "designing a website". But as I said in my answer, the construction that ends in "doing" works if you have a reason to write it that way, but it's kind of awkward.
    – TBridges42
    Aug 5, 2015 at 14:36
  • Yes, but as I got informed, spend time doing X is most used when X is a discrete activity like painting, then I thought in that case we even would be better to say Designing websites not Designing a website, right?
    – Ahmad
    Aug 5, 2015 at 14:40
  • If it is true that more than one website was designed, yes. If you are engaged in the general practice of designing websites, that is the correct construction. However, you could also say "designing a website", implying that you have one single website that is taking up much of your time. You could also say that you spend time "painting a picture" if you mean a specific single picture. For instance, "I spend most of my time painting a picture of the flowers outside my window." Although then it would be more customary to say "working on".
    – TBridges42
    Aug 5, 2015 at 14:44
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When you make such relative clauses, you should be able to read them in reverse

I spend most of my time at designing a website

It sounds grammatical, but we don't use an activity as the adjunct of spending time, however you could say This park is where I spend most of my time in

Second example:

I spend most of my time doing designing a website

However it's awkward but it still is grammatical, because designing a website is a noun phrase like doing something, but we don't say doing + verb + ing except for a discrete activity (Watching, Drinking or Designing websites). we also say doing exercise, doing homework, then you could say:

Exercise is what I spend most of my time doing

Designing websites is what I spend most of my time doing.

Drinking is what I spend most of my time doing

But they are again awkward and just for emphasis purpose, it is natural to say them as

I spend most of my time doing exercise

I spend most of my time drinking

I spend most of my time designing websites

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    Sorry, but reversing it just doesn't work in this case.
    – jimsug
    Aug 5, 2015 at 9:36
  • @jimsug I feel it just work but I didn't notice we can yet say doing designing..
    – Ahmad
    Aug 5, 2015 at 9:41
  • @jimsug I modified my answer, how do you think about it now?!
    – Ahmad
    Aug 5, 2015 at 9:44
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    Actually, you're right - I don't think it's because you can't reverse it, but because spend time doesn't take that kind of adjunct (at verb-ing). That is, you just can't say spend time at eating/drinking/reading. You can spend time at a place. You also can't do verbing, I think. Unless you're referring to a discrete activity. I do watching/seeing/drinking.
    – jimsug
    Aug 5, 2015 at 9:49
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    @Ahmad: many of the results in that Google search do not attest to the pattern you've presented: "doing verb-ing". We tend to use the bare participle there without "doing": I spend most of my time painting. If the activity does not have a verb form, then we use "doing": I spend most of my time doing macrame. We can certainly say -- "That's what I spend most of my time doing." where "that" would refer back to a previous statement in its entirety.
    – TimR
    Aug 5, 2015 at 11:36

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