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Privateer
Joined: 31 Aug 2005
Location: Easy Street.
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 Posted: Thu Sep 29, 2005 3:06 am Post subject: Very Important Question |
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Ok this has been vaguely bugging me for some time and I want it sorted out once and for all! Some tricky questions have been solved on Dave's in the past so hopefully this can be too. What I want to know is...
...if you ask 'What's your job?' why can't you say 'My job is a mechanic,' in reply? |
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ilovebdt
Joined: 03 Jun 2005
Location: Nr Seoul
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| Posted: Thu Sep 29, 2005 3:20 am Post subject: Re: Very Important Question |
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| Privateer wrote: |
Ok this has been vaguely bugging me for some time and I want it sorted out once and for all! Some tricky questions have been solved on Dave's in the past so hopefully this can be too. What I want to know is...
...if you ask 'What's your job?' why can't you say 'My job is a mechanic,' in reply? |
When we talk about our job we always use the first person:
i.e. I am a teacher or you could say I work as a teacher. Although, the second one is a bit weird.
Hope I have helped a bit. |
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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
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| Posted: Thu Sep 29, 2005 5:22 am Post subject: |
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My job is fixing cars. I am a mechanic.
If you mix the two, you are saying, "My job is a person." |
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gypsyfish
Joined: 17 Jan 2003
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Thu Sep 29, 2005 5:27 am Post subject: |
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We use a/an after a copular verb or as to classify people.
It may have something to do with one being the original meaning of a/an. I'm not positive about this last part. |
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Privateer
Joined: 31 Aug 2005
Location: Easy Street.
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| Posted: Fri Sep 30, 2005 2:57 am Post subject: |
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| Cheers everyone. I like the way Yata Boy puts it. Hope the students will too. |
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Son Deureo!
Joined: 30 Apr 2003
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| Posted: Fri Sep 30, 2005 4:20 am Post subject: Re: Very Important Question |
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| Privateer wrote: |
| ...if you ask 'What's your job?' why can't you say 'My job is a mechanic,' in reply? |
Who says "What's your job?" It implies that everyone has one, and only one. It's just as bad as "What's your hobby?" which seems to be embedded in the ESL textbooks in Asia as well.
Better ways to ask these questions are "What do you do (for a living)?" and "What do you like to do for fun?", "What do you do in your free time?" or "What kinds of hobbies do you have?" |
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