Q: I heard you started a new job. __________ (enjoy) it?
The correct answer is are you enjoying it.(Page 3, intermediate grammar in use)
I wonder if do you enjoy it is also a correct answer. It sounds just right to my (albeit non-native) ears.
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3The continuous verb form is "licensed / encouraged" by the fact that you recently started a new job, which implicitly calls attention to the duration of your (new) employment. If the preceding sentence had been, say, I hear you work in local government (with no explicit reference to any particular "length of service"), you'd be far less likely to use the continuous verb form in the follow-up question. But for your exact context, both versions are fine - it's just a matter of what nuance you want to attach to the question.– FumbleFingersJun 11, 2021 at 11:34
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@FumbleFingers Yes, you are broadly right. It is so in virtue of the initial statement, which, as you say, suggests that the recipient of the question has only just started. So (it might be worth adding) we are given to understand that it is too recent to make the enjoyment (if enjoyment there has been) well enough established to allow the plain present tense. Also, I do not know whether this observation is a British versus American English thing, but "I heard you started " sounds like an Americanism, where the British would say "I hear you've started".– TuffyJun 11, 2021 at 13:37
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Wouldn't we usually say either "I hear you've started" or "I heard you'd started?" "I heard you started a new job" suggests the speaker is going to say "and then blew it."– Old BrixtonianJun 11, 2021 at 13:38
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OK. Ignore me. Tuffy's covered that!– Old BrixtonianJun 11, 2021 at 13:39
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The second version sounds fine to me. I doubt any native speaker would consider either version unusual or out of place.– Patrick87Jun 11, 2021 at 13:40
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2 Answers
"Are you liking it?" and "Are you enjoying it?" are somewhat odd constructs because they imply an active, incomplete action; you either like something or you don't. But this is very common and certainly not incorrect. To my American ears, "Are you enjoying it?" has a slight overtone that implies "... so far?" -- recognizing that the person's opinion is based on a limited time and could change. "Do you enjoy it?" is a bit more permanent. But the listener would reply the same way to either question.
- "Do you enjoy it?" is not an incorrect usage.
- The slight difference in connotation is similar, I think, to the Spanish verbs ser and estar. Both are translated in English as "to be," but ser conveys a permanent, identity-based state of being ("I am a doctor") while estar conveys a temporary, transient state ("I am hungry"). The question in your example is one of many ways that one can make small-talk, inquiring into someone's immediate state with continuous tense: "How are you doing? What's happening? How are you feeling?"
answered Jun 11, 2021 at 21:07
