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I am studying present simple and present continuous (permanent and temporary situations). While studying I did the test and there was this dialogue:

-Hey Anna, _____ today?(work)

-No, it's Tuesday. I don't work on Tuesdays

The answer was "are you working?" I wonder if it is possible to say "do you work?" to ask about her schedule. Some people say it is not natural, others says it's possible

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    Why do you want to say something in what you have been told is not the usual or normal way? If you ask "Do you work today?" then people will probably work out what you mean, although it might mean "Do you work on Tuesdays?" rather than "Are you working this particular Tuesday?"
    – Stuart F
    Commented Oct 22 at 14:11
  • All the people you quote are correct: it is possible, but it is not natural. As @StuartF commented, people will understand, but they’re very likely to infer that you are not a native speaker.
    – Paul Tanenbaum
    Commented Oct 22 at 14:32
  • @StuartF more natural phrase would be Do you work Tuesdays?
    – jsotola
    Commented Oct 23 at 2:02
  • Could you please clarify what it is you want to know. Are you asking whether “do you work” might occur in the conversation in the question? Are you asking whether there is some other context in which it makes sense to say, “Do you work today”? Are you asking whether there is a good way to complete a sentence that begins with the words, “Do you work”? Each question is answered differently.
    – David K
    Commented Oct 23 at 21:28
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    @jsotola - not where I'm from. Round here that question would mean "do you use or operate things called 'Tuesdays'?" - the version you allude to would be "do you work on Tuesdays".
    – Spratty
    Commented Oct 24 at 6:57

3 Answers 3

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"Are you working today?" is a specific question about this day - not this day of the week, but this exact day. For example, it might be a Wednesday, and you know the other person normally works Wednesdays, but perhaps you are enquiring if they took a vacation day.

"Do you work today" sounds a little unclear but it could be okay in context. "Do you work..." rather than "are you working" suggests you are asking about what is usual, so if the day were a Wednesday an answer of "no" may mean they don't usually work Wednesdays.

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    Another scenario where "do you work today?" might make sense is before the beginning of the day - in other words, "will you" or "are you going to" but not currently.
    – GalacticCowboy
    Commented Oct 23 at 13:33
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OP's query is on the tense to be used:

-Hey Anna, _____ today?(work).
-No, it's Tuesday. I don't work on Tuesdays.

Please note the time expression (today) making it a specific day. You use simple present tense for habits, general truths, repeated actions:

You can say,
Do you work on Tuesdays? (habits).
But the correct answer because the time expression "today" is there:-
Are you working today?
Are you working tomorrow?
Are you working on Sunday?

  • Time expressions (today, tomorrow) often require present continuous.
  • Habitual/repeated actions use simple present (I work on Tuesdays).
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In American English you could say either:

Are you working today?

Do you work today?

They both ask, in practical contexts, whether the person is scheduled to work that day. The latter, Do you work today?, could mean "Is this day of the week one you usually work on?" or since many people have schedules that vary, it could simply be asking if the person has been scheduled to work that day.

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    As this answer points out, Do you work today? has two likely meanings that are quite different from each other. For that reason, as a speaker of American English I can't imagine asking the question in that way, even in cases where I really just want to know whether the person is working that day.
    – David K
    Commented Oct 23 at 13:23
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    @DavidK Even though Do you work today? has two (closely related) contexts where it can be asked, you would know, and so would the listener, what the context was, so what's the problem? The question could be boiled down to "I know you work according to a schedule and either I do not know the schedule or I have trouble remembering it because it changes so often or I don't even bother to try to commit it to memory, so I would like to know if today is a scheduled work day for you" The meaning of the question is fairly simple even if the contexts can vary.
    – TimR
    Commented Oct 23 at 13:42
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    Was anything in your comment intended to get me to admit that I didn't mean what I said in my comment? What's the problem? The problem is that I wouldn't say Do you work today? under any circumstances other than sheer accident. Sure, it might be understood adequately as a question in some circumstance, but that's not the point. The point is that, for example, going around all the time talking like Yoda I could, and understood well enough I would be, but how I speak that way is not. And the reason is that that's not how people speak where I live. It's that simple.
    – David K
    Commented Oct 23 at 14:32
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    If I don't normally work on Tuesdays, but today is Tuesday and I happen to be covering Carol's shift for her, and if you asked me, "Do you work today," I would try my best to guess your meaning and I would answer, "Yes," because you asked me about today and not about Tuesdays in general. This would be bad, because I just gave the wrong answer to the question you meant to ask. Do people really talk like that in Philadelphia? I don't recall ever hearing such a thing, and I've been living in the U.S. for over six decades.
    – David K
    Commented Oct 23 at 16:45
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    By the way, I did say, "as a speaker of American English I can't imagine asking the question in that way." I wouldn't say such a thing if people where I lived spoke that way. Do I really have to be that explicit? Also, Yoda-speak was reductio ad absurdum, in case you didn't understand that.
    – David K
    Commented Oct 23 at 16:47

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