 <p>Do this:</p> <pre><code>$(e).find(".myclass").something(); </code></pre> <p>or the slightly shorter, yet less efficient version:</p> <pre><code>$(".myclass", e).something(); </code></pre> <p>The reason you can't use <code>+</code> is that your <code>e</code> is a DOM element, which is not a useful type for concatenation into a selector string, since you end up with something like:</p> <pre><code>"[object HTMLInputElement] .myclass" </code></pre>