Where do you live? or Where are you living?

[zoobinshid]

Hello everyone,
Would you please tell me what the difference between these two sentence is?
1)Where do you live?
2)Where are you living?

Thanks in advance,;-)

 

[cner01]

i think

where do you live? is used when you ask in general and want to know a fact that where a person lives. For example, a tourist might ask you "where do you live? (and you're also a tourist just like him on the same trip) you may just answer "I live in California."

Where are you living? is actually an omitted form of "where are you living right now?" and the person asking this question shows his/her interest of knowing where you're living in details or she/he already knows your old place and now wants to know where your new place is. So you would answer "I'm living in San jose, on 1st street, near by the gas station."

 

[DBP]

The present simple is normally used to ask about things that are routine, habitual, scheduled, etc.

The present continuous is used to talk about things that are more transient, not so fixed.

People who are more fixed in their life, more settled may well use, "where do you live?", while those who are more transient, like homeless people or students may tend to, "where are you living?".

The former is also more formal in nature while the progressive is more casual so this can sometimes influence our choice of tense.