"What is he doing at present?"

Translation: Vad gör han för närvarande?

[ValentinCordier]

I think I'm gonna ask a dumb question but can you use "just nu" instead of "för närvarande" ?

[friswing]

Yes. It depends on the context. 'Just nu' is a question about what somebody does 'in this very moment, today', but 'för närvarande' is more a question of what kind of occupation does this person have at present, at this particularily point in his life, not just today.

[ValentinCordier]

Okay thanks!

[Coreopsis2943]

But the English here doesn't make that distinction. It could just as easily be "at this moment".

[GeorgeFerguson93]

Can you say 'vad gör han nyligen'?

[Arnauti]

Interestingly, you can't. nyligen is only about the recent past, so it's only used with past time expressions. In English, you hear people say things like How are you doing recently?, but you cannot use nyligen for that, so although 'recently' is the best translation for nyligen, they don't work the same way. (newly is closer that way, but it's not as common + it will often correspond to compound words in Swedish)

[GeorgeFerguson93]

Can you give me an example sentence where nyligen can be used?

[Arnauti]

De gifte sig nyligen 'They recently got married', X avled nyligen 'X recently passed away', I en artikel som nyligen publicerades i Y-tidningen hävdar Z att… 'In an article recently published in newspaper Y, Z maintains that… '

[GwenDragoness]

What is wrong with "Vad gör han aktuellt?"

[Arnauti]

We don't use aktuellt that way. I think aktuellt is only an adjective, at least I can't think of when it could be an adverb (which it would be to fit here).

[tumsi]

Varför inte: "Vad håller han på?"

[friswing]

Swedish needs to have the particle 'med', when expressing 'hålla på med': So it would be: "Vad håller han på med?" (If they accept that phrase here, or not, I don't know)

[ChrystianThiesen]

Närvarande is like when+being. I found nuvarande too, which is like now+being. There is a significant difference?

[JoshuaMadd2]

What is "tillfället"?

[Zmrzlina]

"för tillfället" means "at the moment".

[Matias426045]

Wouldn't "numera" and "nuförtiden" be good translations for "at present"?

[KteCMHkt]

How about "nuförtiden"? I think that should work.

[Jim658990]

Could you say ´Vad gör för närvarande han?´ That was marked wrong for me.

[friswing]

No, you have to put 'han' directly after the verb 'gör': Vad gör han för närvarande? Furthermore, 'för närvarande' is a heavy expression, and comes last. But even if you use only 'Nu', it will come last: Vad gör han nu?

[SaffronBry1]

hej

[Tengococaina]

:/ what does this phrase even mean?

[Alexandru_____]

This English phrase is quite odd. A more natural version would be "What is he doing currently?"