Learn how to answer the question "what do you do?" in Portuguese.

Start learning Brazilian Portuguese today!

Sign up now for my Free mini-course in pronunciation at www.speakingbrazilian.com.

The most common way to ask what is someone else's profession is:
O que você faz? (What do you do?)

To answer this question, we use the verb ser (to be) and the name of our profession or job.

For example:

Eu sou professora de português. (I am a Portuguese teacher).
E você? O que você faz? (And you? What do you do?)

The names of professions vary in gender (feminine or masculine) and number (singular or plural).

Let's see some examples:

Eu sou professora. (I'm a teacher).
Ele é professor. (He is a teacher).

Usually, nouns ending in r are masculine, and we just need to add the letter a at the end to have the feminine version.

For example:

Cantor - cantora (singer).
Escritor - escritora (writer).

Now let's look at examples in the plural:

Elas são professoras. (They are teachers - fem. plural).
Eles são professores. (They are teachers - masc. plural).

Usually, to form the plural of nouns, we simply add the letter s at the end. But when the noun ends in r, we add the letters es.

For example:
Cantor - cantores (singers).
Escritor - escritores (writers).

As a rule, nouns ending in a are feminine and those ending in o are masculine, but there are some exceptions. Some nouns have only one form, that is, the same noun works for both genders, as is the case with the words estudante (student), dentista (dentist), gerente (manager), motorista (driver).

At the end of the audio, there is an exercise for you to practice what you just learned.

Stay tuned! Every week I post a new episode with tips on grammar, expressions and pronunciation of Brazilian Portuguese.

Thanks for listening to my podcast!

Tchau, tchau! :)