Breakdown of ¿A qué se dedica tu padre?
qué
what
el padre
the father
tu
your (singular)
a
to
se
himself / herself / themselves (reflexive)
dedicarse
to do for a living
Questions & Answers about ¿A qué se dedica tu padre?
Why does this sentence start with A instead of just qué?
In Spanish, the verb dedicarse (to do for a living / to dedicate oneself) is usually paired with the preposition a. When asking a question, this preposition must go at the very beginning before the question word. So, you are literally asking "to what" (¿A qué...?).
What does se dedica actually mean here?
It literally means "dedicates himself". The most common Spanish way to ask about someone's job is to ask what they dedicate themselves to. The se means "himself" here, and dedica is the "he/she/it" form of the verb.
Why does the verb come before tu padre?
Why is there no accent mark on tu?
Without an accent mark, tu is a possessive word meaning "your" (as in tu padre, meaning "your father"). If it had an accent mark (tú), it would be the subject pronoun meaning "you".
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