“What do you do for a living?”

English Lesson: What do you do for a living?

You're talking to a woman at a party who you've never met before. You want to know more about her. You ask this to find out what her job is.

What do you do for a living?

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what do you do?

"What do you do?" is a question that adults almost always ask each other when they meet.

A: Nice to meet you.

B: Nice to meet you too, Bailey. So... tell me, what do you do?

A: I'm a jazz musician.

The question means "What is your job?", but no one directly asks "What is your job?"

do (something) for a living

You can talk about a person's job as what they "do for a living".

What do you do for a living?

I think he told me what he does for a living, but I forgot what he said.

"Do ___ for a living" is related to other phrases like "earn a living" and "make a living" which both mean to earn enough money to live normally.