Learn English – Simple present vs. present continuous

differencesprogressive-aspectspeechverbs

What is the difference between saying:

Are you still working there?

Do you still work there?

Which is more common in spoken vs written English?

Google books returned results for both of them.

Best Answer

There is a subtle difference. To my ear "Are you still working there?" is the more aggressive and challenging form, as in "Jeez, why are you staying at that crappy job?"

"Do you still work there?" sounds more neutral, as in "Hey, I haven't seen you since I left company x. Do you still hang out with those people?"

That might be because ARE YOU can be an auxiliary verb, which helps puts focus on the person addressed. DO YOU relies on a verb and the energy of the sentence is directed away from the person addressed, which I think sounds more polite.