Forming Spanish Present
Participles
(-ing words) to use in the
Present Progressive Tense
Sra. Alba
Spanish
Regular Verbs
(pgs. 178-179)
Take the last two letters off the verb infinitive:
Hablar (to speak) = habl
Comer (to eat) = com
Escribir (to write) = escrib
For –ar verbs add ~ando
habl+ando = speaking
For –er and –ir verbs add ~iendo
com+iendo = eating,
escrib+iendo = writing
When a verb stem ends in a
vowel:
For –er and –ir verbs, once you have removed the last two letters,
if the stem ends in a vowel add ~yendo instead of –iendo.
Atraer = atra + yendo = atrayendo (attracting)
Caer = ca + yendo = cayendo (falling)
Construir = constru + yendo = construyendo (building)
Whenever an unstressed i appears between two vowels
use the ~yendo ending instead of the –iendo ending.
The present participle of IR (to go)
is a special case
If you remove the –ir ending of IR you have nothing left,
so just go ahead and add ~yendo.
The present participle of IR is ~yendo (going).
Ll and Ñ stems
When the stem of an –er or and –ir verb ends in ll or ñ,
-iendo changes to ~endo.
This is because ll and ñ already have the sound of an i at the end.
gruñir (to growl) = gruñ + endo = gruñendo (growling)
Change to the stem!
Some verbs also change in the stem when forming
the present participle.
When an –ir verb has a stem change in the third person preterite
(e i or o u) it will have the same change in its present
participle form.
Decir (to say) = dijo (he said) = diciendo (saying)
Hervir (to boil) = hirvió (it boiled) = herviendo (boiling)
Pedir (to ask for) = pido (he asked for) = pidiendo (asking for)
Venir (to come) = vino (he came) = viniendo (coming)
Dormir (to sleep) = durmió (he slept) = durmiendo (sleeping)
Want to apply what you’ve learned?
These verbs all have stems that end in a vowel:
Creer – to believe
Leer – to read
Traer – to bring
Contribuir – to contribute
Huir – to flee, to run away
Influir – to influence
So which ending will they use for their present participle?
~iendo, ~ando, ~endo or ~yendo?
You’ve got it!
~ YENDO
-Yendo Endings
Creer – to believe
Creyendo = believing
Leer – to read
Leyendo = reading
Traer – to bring
Trayendo = bringing
Contribuir – to contribute
Huir – to flee, to run away
Influir – to influence
Contribuyendo = contributing
Huyendo = fleeing, running
away
Influyendo = influencing
What’s the present participle for
IR (to go)?
Yup, you guessed it!
YENDO = going
And what happens when the verb
stem of an ~er or ~ir verb ends in
ll or an ñ?
Because those letters contain the sound of an i at the end you can just
add ~endo instead of –iendo.
Engullir = to gulp, guzzle, devour, wolf down
Engullendo = gulping, guzzling, devouring, wolfing down
And finally for those verbs that
change in the stem for their third
person preterite form?
Just remember to keep the stem change for the present participle as well!
Competir (to compete) = compitió (he competed) = compitiendo
(competing)
Conseguir (to get) = consiguió (he got) = consiguiendo (getting)
Morir (to die) = murió (he died) = muriendo (dying)
So that should pretty much keeps you
covered for forming any present
participle for any Spanish verb!
So what are you waiting for?
Off you go and speak some Spanish!