What does your father do? vs What is your father doing?

[Johanne]

Sometimes you might hear someone ask:

What does your father do?

Since that is similar to

What is your father doing?

and, since it is easy to get confused between Simple Present and Present Continuous, I want to explain the difference between these two particular examples.

When we ask, “What is your father doing?” (present continuous), we are asking about his activity right now:

What is your father doing?

• He is sleeping.
• He is reading a book.
• He is exercising.
• He is washing the car.
  

etc.

Again, the focus is RIGHT NOW.

On the other hand, when we ask “What does your father do?” (simple present), we are asking what kind of job he has:

What does your father do?

• He is a doctor.
• He works in a bank.
• He’s an accountant.
• He repairs cars for a living.
  

etc.

The focus is on TYPE OF WORK.

So, although “What is your father doing?” and “What does your father do?” seem to be very similar, they are actually quite different.