What are you? and "What do you do?"

Question

To answer this:

I am a teacher

I am a student

Can I ask the following questions?

What are you?

What do you do?

What is your job?

I mean, I have never used "what are you?" for that. I would like to know your opinions.

Thank you.

"What are you?" doesn't work. The answer might be "I'm a human being", "I'm a mammal" - lagartijaverde, Apr 26, 2010

Milestone: Nila has reached 10 K here on Apr 28, 2010 :) - Fidalgo, Apr 28, 2010

Answer 1

I would avoid the What are you? It doesn't specifically ask you what your occupation is like What is your job? What is your job? can ask for a detailed description of your job, rather than just a title.

A better worded question would be:

What do you do for a living?

How do you earn your living?

What is your occupation?

If you know the person has a permanent career position rather than what might be a temporary position you could ask:

What is your profession? (teacher, lawyer, judge, doctor, businessman, nurse, librarian, politician, etc. A career that requires advanced education and training.)

I'm not sure that being a student is considered as a job and it does not earn you a living. What is your occupation? would work for that designation.

IN my part of the world, "What do you do for a living?" would be the most common way to say it. - Goyo, Apr 26, 2010

Answer 2

Where I live it is very common to ask "Where do you work?" The answer does not have to be a place - for example -

"Where do you work?" "I'm a dentist/doctor/accountant/etc"

This is very colloquial. The options given by qfreed are better and more accurate.

I think that is a very common question that does not require a location as an answer. - 0074b507, Apr 26, 2010

Or the answer would be "I work at such and such as a xxxx." - 0074b507, Apr 26, 2010

Answer 3

You definitely would not ask "What are you?"

If you're looking for the answer "I'm a teacher/student," simply ask "What do you do?" or "What do you do for a living?" That's appropriate even for a student or someone who doesn't earn a salary.

If you're interested specifically in their job, ask "What sort/kind of work do you do?"

Answer 4

I wouldn't recommend using "what are you?" For me it's soudns rude (and it's incorrect), but I am not a native English speaker, so, maybe I am wrong. Instead of using "What are you?" you can use: "What do you do for living?", "What's your occupation?" or "What's your profession?" (Myabe the question "What's your work?" could work..)

Answer 5

Hi Nila.

I agree with the others who said that "What are you?" doesn't work in this context.

My most common phrase after asking about someone's name, family, etc. would be "What do you do?" (¿A qué se dedica?)