Present Tense vs. Present Progressive Tense - Mini Lesson

A quick test.

Q1 - What is she doing?

Q2 - What does she do?

Most of the time the answers I get from students are the same.  I often here “she is studying”, or “she is doing homework”.  But that is almost the same answer.  I asked two completely different questions.

The answer should be:

 A1 - She is studying.  (or any other kind of action)

A2 - She is a doctor. (or any other kind of job)

What does she do? = What is her job. 

For a native speaker, these questions are worlds apart, but test your students.  Many think that they know the answer, so they don’t want to spend much time studying basic tenses.  But a lot of the time, they don’t really know it deeply and instinctively.  Most students do want to master the basics, so push on and make sure they can answer this question.

(As a follow up question to test them, ask “What are you wearing?” followed by “what do you wear?”)