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:
y
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
tú 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
