Revising Spanish grammar - present tense - EdexcelThe present continuous tense

To say what you are doing at the moment, you use the present continuous tense.

To form the present continuous, you use:

1. the correct form of the verbestar in the present tense and
2. the present participle (sometimes called the gerund)

For example:

• Estoy escuchando música. - I am listening to music.
• Mi hermano está viendo la tele. - My brother is watching TV.

The present participle

This is the equivalent of the English verb form which ends in '-ing'. To form the present participle, remove the -ar, -er or -ir from the infinitive and add these endings:

• -ar verbs → -ando
• -er verbs → -iendo
• -ir verbs → -iendo

A small number of verbs (including some stem-changing verbs) have irregular present participles. For example:

• leer (to read) → leyendo (reading)
• oír (to hear) → oyendo (hearing)
• dormir (to sleep) → durmiendo (sleeping)
• morir (to die) → muriendo (dying)