To find out what job or work people do, we ask: What do you do?
You can say what you are: I’m a student.
or what you do I study at the university.
Here are some more answers: I’m a builder.
or I build houses.
ANNE What do you do?
STEVE I’m a builder. I build houses.
We sometimes add er to words to say what we are: I bake bread.
I’m a baker.
I manage a hotel.
I’m a hotel manager.
You can say the place where you work: I work in a bank.
or I work at a bank.
So if you asked your English teacher: What do you do?
H e could say: I work at a school.
or I work in a school.
or I teach English.
or I’m a teacher
You can say that you work for a business. I work for the bank.
I work for a restaurant.
2. GETTING TO WORK
Here are some ways to answer the question How do you get to work?
I catch a bus.
or I take a bus.
or I go by bus
I drive to work.
or I go by car
I walk to work.
or I go on foot.
ANNE And how do you get to work?
STEVE I drive. I have to use my car for work. I never go by bus.
For most types of transport we say by I go by car
I go by train
I go by bus
But we say I go on foot
3. HOW OFTEN
Here are some words we use to tell people how often or how frequently we do things.
How often do you go to the cinema? occasionally
STEVE Where do you go? Nightclubs?
ANNE Not really. Occasionally.
How often do you exercise? always
How often do you watch TV? sometimes
STEVE And what do you do on the weekend?
ANNE Sometimes I go shopping.
How often do you go fishing? never
ANNE I never work outside.
How often do you study? often
4. POSSESSIVE APOSTROPHE
We add s to nouns to make them plural. one lion
two lions
But sometimes we add s for a single thing that owns something:
ANNE Well, I work in my father’s business, importing wines.
That lion’s teeth are yellow.
The teeth belong to one lion. We use an apostrophe when adding s to show possession. That lion’s teeth are yellow.
If we are talking about more than one lion owning something we put the apostrophe after the s. Those lions’ teeth are yellow.
Watch Living English and get to know the characters of our drama 'Sisters and Brothers' as you learn and revise your basic English skills.