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#186 – The Present progressive tense in Spanish

Corporate Spanish Trainer

The Present progressive tense in Spanish

What are you doing right now?

Post 186/365
Es jueves el 28 de septiembre de 2017

 

Hi!

Welcome to Spanish Blog 365.

 

Today we are starting a new verb tense called the presente progresivo.

 

It’s pretty easy to learn. We are going to combine 2 components that we’ve already learned:

El verbo estar

y

Los verbos

 

The Present progressive

 

 

1. Verb tense is used to show what you are doing right now, at this moment. It can also be used to show an on-going, progressive action such as studying Spanish.

a. En este momento yo estoy escribiendo un e-mail. – At this moment, I’m writing an email.

b. Estamos estudiando español. – We are studying Spanish. (right now or on-going)

 

 

2. This tense consists of 2 parts:

 

Parte 1 – el verbo estar en el presente – This shows who is doing the action

Yo estoy
estás

él
ella está
Ud.

Nosotros estamos

Vosotros estáis

ellos
ellas están
Uds.

 

 

Parte 2 – el gerundio (a verb in the -ing form)

 

-ar verbs like hablar or buscar drop the -ar and add -ando

hablando

buscando

 

-er and -ir verbs like comer or escribir drop the -er or -ir and add -iendo

comiendo

escribiendo

 

Notice how this -ing ending does not indicate who is doing the action. That’s why we need ‘estar’!

 

 

3. ¡Practiquemos! – Let’s practice!

 

Practice changing each verb in parenthesis to show what each person is doing.

Yo estoy ______ (comer pizza, mirar Narcos)

Tú estás ______ (buscar las llaves, hablar con Juan)

Ella está ______ (pensar en su próximo viaje, hacer reservas)

Nosotros estamos ______ (jugar al fútbol, tomar mucha agua)

Ellos están ______ (almorzar en un café, asistir a una conferencia)

 

Action steps: Practice changing the verbs in parenthesis in the Práctica de arriba.

 

Leave me a comment and let me know if you have any questions about your Spanish. I’d love to hear from you!

 

Gracias y hasta mañana,
Carolina

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