Sunday, March 22, 2015

difference - 'What are you?' vs. 'What do you do?'


What is the difference between 'What are you?' and 'What do you do?' in the job meaning?


How to sense this difference if I need to ask about profession?



Answer




I meet a lot of people who are on holiday. I generally ask first where they come from, and then ask "What do you do there?". If somebody then says "I'm a doctor", I could then say "What kind of doctor are you?"


So, those are your two questions, but each needs a little more context to make it clear what exactly you are asking for.


Note that you can't ask somebody what is their profession: tradesmen, housewives, students, etc might be offended.


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