The Present Progressive
Normally, in Spanish, we just use the present tense to express “I AM (doing
something)” or “HE IS (doing something)”.
Remember that the present tense has three meanings:
canto = I sing
I do sing
I am singing
However, at times you may want to stress the fact that you are doing it RIGHT
NOW. When you don’t want any confusion of if you “do work” or if you “are
working right now”, then use the present progressive tense of the verb.
All present progressives have two parts, like reflexive verbs (pronoun + conjugated
verb). The form is:
estar (conjugated)
+
present participle
Estar you know well, so the hard part is just learning the present participle. In
English, the present participle is the -ing form of the verb (studying, working, etc.).
In Spanish, the present participle is formed like this:
-ar =
-er or -ir =
-ando
-iendo
Let’s look at some present progressives compared with their present tense forms:
buscar
¾
busco
busca
buscamos
=
=
=
estoy buscando
está buscando
estamos buscando
beber
¾
bebo
bebes
beben
=
=
=
estoy bebiendo
estás bebiendo
están bebiendo
vivir
¾
vivo
vive
vivís
=
=
=
estoy viviendo
está viviendo
estáis viviendo
Try forming the present AND present progressive, yo forms of these infinitives:
mirar
escribir
comer
ayudar
hablar
vender
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The Present Progressive
There are a few irregularities in forming the present participle portion of the
present progressive:
When the stem of an -ir or -er verb ends in a vowel (such as leer),
instead of adding -iendo, change it to -yendo. The verb ir, which
has nothing when you take away the -ir, is just yendo.
leer
¾
leo
leen
=
=
estoy leyendo
están leyendo
ir
¾
voy
van
=
=
estoy yendo
están yendo
Verbs ending in -ir and which are normally stem-changing verbs
follow this pattern to form the present participle:
o to ue
e to ie
e to i
=
=
=
o to u
e to i
e to i (same)
dormir
¾
duermo
duerme
=
=
estoy durmiendo
está durmiendo
sentir
¾
siento
siente
=
=
estoy sintiendo
está sintiendo
servir
¾
sirvo
sirve
=
=
estoy sirviendo
está sirviendo
When a sentence contains a present progressive verb form along with any object or
reflexive pronouns, the pronouns attatch to the end of the present participle like
they do with infinitive constructions.
Follow the pattern RID - Reflexive, Indirect, Direct
Estoy durmiendome.
Estás leyendonoslos.
Estamos comprandolas.
Él está lavandoselos.
I am falling asleep.
You are reading them to us.
We are buying them.
He is washing them.
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