Business French – How To Ask People What They Do

In this lesson, we take a closer look at the formulation of questions asking people what they do professionally and how answers can be constructed.

Watch the video as many times as you need, until you feel you can give the French translations as we go!

Now we can see what we’ve learned. Look at the English and see if you can provide the French for the following:

Part 1:

What do you do in life?	Show Qu’est-ce que vous faites dans la vie?
What job do you do?	Show Qu’est-ce que vous faites comme travail?
What’s your profession?	Show Quel est votre profession?
I am a dentist. (m/f)	Show Je suis dentiste.
I work as an engineer. (f)	Show je travaille comme ingénieure.

Part 2:

He is a mechanic.	Show Il est mécanicien.
She works as an accountant.	Show Elle travaille comme notaire.
He is a builder.	Show Il est constructeur.
She is a plumber.	Show Elle est plombière.
He works as a graphic designer.	Show Il travaille comme créateur graphique.

Sentence Builder:

In this section, we take a closer look at the formulation of the questions and how answers can be constructed. Take a look and study the expressions in the tables below:

Qu’est-ce que vous faites dans la vie?
What do you do in life?

Qu’est-ce que vous faites comme travail?
What work do you do?

Quelle est votre profession?
What is your profession?

Je suis… I am a… Je travaille comme… I work as a…	dentiste (m/f) dentist ingénieur (m) engineer ingénieure (f) engineer
Il est… He is a… Il travaille comme He works as a…	constructeur builder mécanicien mechanic notaire accountant
Elle est… She is a… Elle travaille comme… She works as a…	constructrice builder mécanicienne mechanic notaire accoutant