What is the correct question?
Do you know the difference between these two questions?
What do you do?
What are you doing?
Listen for the difference
Can you hear the difference between What do you do? and What are you doing?
Listen and repeat.
What do you do? sounds like whaddaya do with stress on the final ‘do’ syllable.
What are you doing? sounds like whaddaya doowin with stress on the next to last ‘do’ syllable.
Practice
Explanation
What do you do? is in the Present simple. We use the Present simple to talk about habits, routines, and general truths (not about what’s happening now).
What are you doing? is in the Present progressive (sometimes called the Present continuous). We use the Present progressive to talk about what's happening now or around now. (It’s also used to talk about a scheduled future plan. And sometimes to tell a joke!)
Examples
| Present simple: to talk about habits, routines, and general truths | Present progressive: to talk about what’s happening now; actions that are in progress |
|---|---|
| I live in Washington. | I'm living with my sister (but I want to move out). |
| You speak English and Ukrainian. | You're learning to speak Spanish now. |
| We drive to work together. | We're taking driving lessons this month. |
| They usually take the bus on Fridays. | They're running because the bus is early! |
| She works in a hospital. | She is working on the 5th floor right now. |
| He goes to work every morning. | He is going to work by bus this morning. |
| It always starts at five pm. | Hurry up! It's starting at five pm. |
| ??Listen to these sentences. | ????Listen to these sentences. |
Practice
Open the Exercise Present simple vs Present progressive to practice choosing the correct tense.