How do you say "What do you do?", in regards to profession?

Question

I am listening to a Pimsleur series (do not have the books with it), and there is a phrase I cannot understand, and cannot find the word in translators or dictionaries. The phrase means "what do you do", and it sounds like they are saying:

que de dedica? or que de didica?

This is for Latin America. Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

You can say:

¿En qué trabajas? = What work do you do? (familiar form to use with friends/people younger)

¿A qué te dedicas? = What's your job? (literall: To what do you dedicate yourself?)

or even ¿Cuál es su profesión? What is your profession?

In Spanish there are often many ways of saying the same thing /asking the same question.

I hope this helps

Answer 2

FELIZ77, thanks! Yes, that is what I was looking for. I looked up dedica and the definition didn't make sense, but in that context it does. They say:

"a que dedica usted?" in the audio; professional formal. They used the question about profession in a previous lesson.

Thanks!

De nada :) - FELIZ77, Mar 10, 2011

The verb is dedicarse + a: Yo me dedico a..., tú te dedicas a..., él se dedica a... A qué se dedica usted? - LuisCache, Mar 10, 2011

Yes Luis I realize that thank you but is there any reason why a person would not ask someone they knew a little as a friend what they do for a job? using tú? - FELIZ77, Mar 14, 2011

Answer 3

I looked up the verb "dedicar" in the dictionary here at spanishdict.com and found this example as related to occuaptions:

¿a qué se dedica usted? -> what do you do for a living?

That is probably what Pimsleur is using. :) - 0066c384, Mar 10, 2011

Answer 4

The book I have gives this sentence for "What do you do?" in reference to an occupation.

¿Qué haces?

I'm not sure of the question in Pimsleur. The courses I have taken are for Castilian Spanish.