Russian vocabulary: how to talk about your work

If you have recently met someone and you are just starting to get to know them, it is only natural that they might ask about your occupation.

• Кем ты работаешь? — What do you do?

• Кто ты по профессии?  — What is your profession?
• Чем ты занимаешься? — What do you do for living?

Such a question sounds informal. If the situation is more formal or even just neutral, you should use the pronoun “вы”: Кем вы работаете?

The answer is simple:

• Я врач. — I am a doctor.
• Я студентка. — I’m a student.

Another option:

• Я работаю учителем. — I am a teacher.
• Он работает строителем. — He is a construction worker.

Pay attention to the nouns denoting professions or occupations endings. Most nouns denoting a profession in Russian will always be used in the masculine gender:

• бизнесмен — businessman;

• водитель — driver;     
• врач — doctor;

• дизайнер — designer;

• директор — chief manager

• инженер — engineer;

• менеджер — manager;

• парикмахер — hairdresser;

• пилот — pilot;

• повар — cook;

• программист — programmer;

• строитель — builder, constructor.

• фермер — farmer;
• юрист — lawyer.

Sometimes a woman’s option for a businessman — бизнесвумен (businesswoman).

The person gender whose profession you are referring to can be indicated by using personal verb endings in the past tense. In other cases, you have to be guided by the context.

Наталья Петровна — отличный врач. — Natalya Petrovna is an excellent doctor (it is clear from the sentence what gender the doctor is).

Врач вчера не работала. — The doctor did’t work yesterday (the verb ending indicates the gender).

Пилот посадил самолет с первого раза. — The pilot landed the plane on the first try (you need a broader context to understand the pilot gender).

The feminitives – nouns that can be used to form the words feminine gender in the original masculine gender – are becoming more and more common in Russian today. This is why you may encounter such variants in writing and in speech:

• врачиня, докторка — she-doctor;
• авторка — she-author;
• бухгалтерка — she-accountant;
• инженерка — she-engineer.

Note that feminitives are not an official norm of the Russian language. Not everyone treats them unequivocally, as they do any new formation in the language. Therefore, it is better not to use them yourself without the interlocutor’s request. 

Some occupational words have masculine and feminine forms.

The suffix -к- (plus the ending -a) is used to form feminine nouns from the masculine:

• артист / артистка — actor / actress;  

• студент / студентка — university student;

• аспирант / аспирантка — post-graduate student;

• журналист / журналистка — journalist;

• официант / официантка — waiter/waitress

• спортсмен / спортсменка — sportsman.

Кем вы работаете? — Я журналист, а моя жена — студентка. — What do you do? — I am a journalist and my wife is a student.

The suffix -иц- (-ниц-) (plus the ending -a) is also used to form feminine from masculine nouns:

• охранник / охранница — guard;

• певец / певица — singer; 

• переводчик / переводчица — interpreter;

• писатель / писательница — writer;
• учитель / учительница — teacher.

Кто ваши родители по профессии? — Моя мама учительница, а папа — писатель. — What are your parents’ occupations? — My mother is a teacher and my father is a writer.

More masculine and feminine variants in the occupation’s names:

• балерина / танцор балета — ballet dancer;

• медсестра / медбрат — paramedic;

• стюардесса / стюард — stewardess / steward;

• швея / мастер пошива — tailoress / tailor.