About your profession

Question

Hi All,

I came across a sentence which said "¿A qué te dedicas?" to ask what is your profession and I clearly don't understand this at all. A seems to be at or to. So can anyone please explain why it says this way?

Gracias Vidya

Welcome to the forum!! :-) - Destroyed99, Aug 6, 2011

Gracias!! - thalaivi, Aug 6, 2011

Answer 1

Hi, and welcome to the forum.

You are right, "a" in this case means "to".

Literally, To what do you dedicate yourself?

or, in English,

What do you do (for work)?

Excellent explanation. - --Mariana--, Aug 6, 2011

Gracias por decirlo, Mariana. - Jeremias, Aug 6, 2011

Answer 2

Gracias,

So the te there it stands for yourself?

Vidya

Yes, that's right! - --Mariana--, Aug 6, 2011

Answer 3

Are these acceptable ways of asking:

"What do you do for a living?" ¿Qué puedes hacer para ganarse la vida?

"What type of work do you do?" "¿Qué tipo de trabajo que haces?"

"Where do you work?" "¿Dónde trabajas?

Answer 4

Are these acceptable ways of asking:

"What do you do for a living?" ¿Qué puedes hacer para ganarse la vida?

"What type of work do you do?" "¿Qué tipo de trabajo que haces?"

"Where do you work?" "¿Dónde trabajas?

Hi Joyce, I just noticed your questions. I can offer a little input, I hope.

I think #1 is a bit awkward. It's ¿A qué te dedicas?, or ¿En qué trabajas?

For #2, grammatically that should be ¿Qué tipo de trabajo haces? (no second que). I think there is a better verb for this than hacer, but I am not sure what would sound right. It would be good to get the input from a native speaker.

#3 is perfect!