What’s your profession in Spanish?
In Spanish, we do ask the profession very often as in many other cultures as far as we know. It is not impolite at all, it is just part of our communication in any field; professions then.
Do you think a profession is a temporary, or a permanent thing? Well, we bet people would say temporary because many people along their lives have many professions but, No!!!! Professions are considered a permanent thing (SER). How is it? We study a career eventually and we think that this will remain as a permanent thing in your life, which makes sense in a way. Verb to be permanent then (SER).
To ask the profession of a person, we have several ways to go. We are gonna number one by one them all:
- ¿A QUÉ TE DEDICAS?
WHAT ARE YOU DEDICATED TO?
♥ the most common one and the weirdest. This can be used in a formal and non formal way. The English order would be: what are you dedicated to? Which makes sense in a way…
2. ¿CUÁL ES TU PROFESIÓN?
WHICH IS YOUR PROFESSION?
2.1.¿CUÁL ES TU TRABAJO?
WHICH IS YOUR WORK?
3.¿QUÉ HACES?
WHAT DO YOU DO?
♣ Of course we do not know yet other verbs but SER and ESTAR, but because the answer will come for all the questions the same, we can already see it without understanding anything about the conjugation of the verb.
4.QUÉ ERES?
WHAT ARE YOU?
♠ Even though the question is understandable it is very weird to ask professions in terms of what you are…I’d say I’m a Human….but in Spanish connecting your being with your profession is a very normal thing. We also see it very weird because in our eyes, what you are doing as a profession in your life does not show the being of any person…languages…
So, we would stick with the number 1 or 2, 2.1.
To answer these questions as we have seen already, that is a permanent expression, we will always use the same verb SER.
1.¿A QUÉ TE DEDICAS?
WHAT ARE YOU DEDICATED TO?
2.¿CUÁL ES TU PROFESIÓN?
WHICH IS YOUR PROFESSION?
2.1.¿CUÁL ES TU TRABAJO?
WHICH IS YOUR WORK?
3.¿QUÉ HACES?
WHAT DO YOU DO?
4.¿QUÉ ERES?
WHAT ARE YOU?
Answer: I AM STUDENT
YO SOY ESTUDIANTE
♦ As a permanent expression VERBO SER. Let’s review the conjugation:
SER IS THE VERB TO BE IN SPANISH PERMANENT
|
PERSONAL PRONOUN |
PRONOMBRE PERSONAL |
TO BE |
ESTAR |
|
I |
YO |
AM |
SOY |
|
YOU |
TÚ |
ARE |
ERES |
|
YOU (FORMAL) |
USTED |
ARE |
ES |
|
HE |
ÉL |
IS |
ES |
|
SHE |
ELLA |
IS |
ES |
|
WE |
NOSOTROS |
ARE |
SOMOS |
|
YOU(ALL) |
VOSOTROS |
ARE |
SOIS |
|
YOU (ALL FORMAL) |
USTEDES |
ARE |
SON |
|
THEY (MASCULINE) FOR GUYS |
ELLOS |
ARE |
SON |
|
THEY (FEMININE) FOR GIRLS |
ELLAS |
ARE |
SON |
Of course vocabulary of professions is needed, we will see it in the following section.
But remember:
¿A QUÉ TE DEDICAS?
WHAT ARE YOU DEDICATED TO?
¿CUÁL ES TU PROFESIÓN?
WHICH IS YOUR PROFESSION?
♥ YO SOY ESTUDIANTE!!!!
Professions and their gender in Spanish
Let’s see the vocabulary about professions in this very post. We will pick a few, of course it depends on yours, but there’s always time to find out more vocabulary on dictionaries or translators online for it. We have to make them feminine as well, once we have the masculine one:
TURN THE MASCULINE PROFESSIONS INTO FEMININE , REMEMBER THE RULE?
- WORDS THAT END WITH A CONSONANT WE WILL TURN THEM FEMININE JUST ADDING AN A AT THE END.
ESPAÑOL⇒ADD A⇒ESPAÑOLA
- ADJECTIVES THAT ENDS WITH A VOWEL, WE WILL TURN THEM FEMININE SWITCHING THE ENDING VOWEL I, O, U into A
CHINO⇒SWITCH I, O, U to A⇒CHINA
- ADJECTIVES THAT ENDS WITH A VOWEL E. WILL REMAIN THE SAME FOR GIRLS AND BOYS.
ESTADOUNIDENSE ⇒SAME⇒ESTADOUNIDENSE
LET’S TURN THE MASCULINE PROFESSIONS INTO FEMININE NOW THEN:
|
PROFESSION |
PROFESIÓN DE HOMBRE (MAN’S PROFESSION) |
PROFESIÓN DE MUJER (WOMAN’S) |
|
STUDENT |
ESTUDIANTE |
ESTUDIANTE |
|
DOCTOR |
DOCTOR |
DOCTORA |
|
WAITER |
CAMARERO |
CAMARERA |
|
TEACHER |
PROFESOR |
PROFESORA |
|
LAWYER |
ABOGADO |
ABOGADA |
|
NURSE |
ENFERMERO |
ENFERMERA |
|
RECEPCIONIST |
RECEPCIONISTA |
RECEPCIONISTA ♦ |
|
SPORT PLAYER |
DEPORTISTA |
DEPORTISTA ♦ |
|
SECRETARY |
SECRETARIO |
SECRETARIA |
|
ACTOR |
ACTOR |
⊗ |
|
ACTRESS |
⊗ |
ACTRIZ |
♦ 1.Many professions do not follow the MASCULINE-FEMININE rule, and even though they do not finish with the vowel E, they keep the same gender for both sex.
Ex: Recepcionista, Deportista.
⊗ 2. As seen above, we do have a different words for the actor and actress profession as in English. Many people, even natives, they do use wrong the feminine of actor⇔actora. This is not right, but because is a very common mistake, sounds actually right. But it is not!!!
What’s your profession?
After this post we are ready to tell our profession with the right gender. Remember it is a permanent expression!!! So, this will take us to permanent To be (SER). Let’s see overall:
1.¿A QUÉ TE DEDICAS?
WHAT ARE YOU DEDICATED TO?
♣ verb dedicarse is conjugated :
|
SUBJECT PRONOUN |
TO DEDICATE ONESELF |
DEDICARSE |
|
YO⇔I |
DEDICATE MYSELF |
ME DEDICO |
|
TÚ⇔YOU |
DEDICATE YOURSELF |
TE DEDICAS |
|
USTED⇔YOU(FORMAL) |
DEDICATE YOURSELF |
SE DEDICA |
|
ÉL/ELLA⇔HE/SHE |
DEDICATES HIMSELF/HERSELF |
SE DEDICA |
2.¿CUÁL ES TU PROFESIÓN?
WHICH IS YOUR PROFESSION?
2.1.¿CUÁL ES TU TRABAJO?
WHICH IS YOUR WORK?
3.¿QUÉ HACES?
WHAT DO YOU DO?
4.¿QUÉ ERES?
WHAT ARE YOU?
♥ In any previous question, all will be answered with verb to be, with the same form:
YO SOY PROFESOR (MAN)
I AM TEACHER
YO SOY PROFESORA (WOMAN)
I AM TEACHER
