[Grammar] What Does He Do??

[pinbong]

Hi, teachers:

Question #1:
(I'm not asking you to give direct answer to my homework. I'm just uncertain about it. Both the answers look oK to me. )

Choose the best answer to the question.

Q: What does he do?
A: 1. He's a worker; 2.He works in a hospital.

Question #2:
How do you native speakers respond to "thank you very much"? My textbook says "not at all" , "All right" , "No problem" are appropriate responses to "Thank you " too. But I'm not so sure. Can't remember ever hearing native speakers say them. What I often heard include:

"you're welcome"
"my pleasure"
"the pleasure is all mine"
"No sweat."
==========
Please tell me which ones are correct and which are not. And if there're others, please supplement. Thanks.

 

[Coolfootluke]

I am not a teacher.

1. Both look OK to me, too, but they usually ask for the best answer, which is 2. One reason is that it answers the question (What does he do?), but 1 answers a different question (What is he?).

2. All your replies are natural (except that "not at all" is unlikely in my part of the USA). The safest and politest of them is "you're welcome", and I recommend it; it always works. There are a million other possibilities.

 

[pinbong]

Thank you very much, Coolfootluke

 

[5jj]

I am not a teacher.

1. Both look OK to me, too, but they usually ask for the best answer, which is 2. One reason is that it answers the question (What does he do?), but 1 answers a different question (What is he?).

In BrE, 'What does he do?' - 'He's a teacher/doctor/miner' is perfectly natural and correct.

'He's a worker' is not a normal response.

 

[Khosro]

In BrE, 'What does he do?' - 'He's a teacher/doctor/miner' is perfectly natural and correct.

'He's a worker' is not a normal response.

I wonder if there are any other idiomic question in place of "what was his job?". Is there any? (By the way, welcome back 5 ! )

 

[SoothingDave]

"What do you do for a living?" is another way of asking.

 

[Khosro]

"What do you do for a living?" is another way of asking.

I mean in the past tense,for someone who was for example a journalist in 19'th century.

 

[Coolfootluke]

In BrE, 'What does he do?' - 'He's a teacher/doctor/miner' is perfectly natural and correct.

'He's a worker' is not a normal response.

I am not a teacher.

American English is the same. "What do you do?" is the normal way of asking what you do for a living. I was trying to give the OP a way of looking at such test questions that might help, but I can see that I might have misled him. If the testmaker had a strong command of idiom, "He's a worker" would be wrong because nobody would say that. We don't use "worker" that way---it's too general, for one thing.

 

[SoothingDave]

I mean in the past tense,for someone who was for example a journalist in 19'th century.

"What did he do for a living?"

 

[Khosro]

"What did he do for a living?"

I don't like your sentence SoothingDave. It brings to the mind that the main issue was making money. As I said I am talking about a journalist. Anyway, I suppose I can ask:"What was his career?" or "who was he?".

(by the way, is my usage of "brings to mind" correct here? what word or phrase is more suitable?)

 

[Barb_D]

Sorry if you don't like it, but it's a very, very common way to ask about a career in the US.

 

[Khosro]

Sorry if you don't like it, but it's a very, very common way to ask about a career in the US.

:lol: okay! okay!

 

[5jj]

Sorry if you don't like it, but it's a very, very common way to ask about a career in the US.

And in the UK.