The present continuous tense
To say what you are doing at the moment, you use the present continuous tenseA present tense that describes what is happening at that precise moment, eg: 'I am reading', 'he is crying'..
To form the present continuous, you use:
- the correct form of the verbA 'doing' word; a word expressing action. 'Walk', 'talk', 'come', 'go', 'eat' and 'sleep' are all verbs.estar in the present tense and
- the present participle (sometimes called the gerundIn English, the gerund is a verb form ending in -ing eg. running, walking. In Spanish, the gerund never changes its ending to agree, and usually ends in -ando or -iendo.)
| (yo) | estoy | + present participle(-ando, -iendo, -iendo) |
| (tu) | estás | |
| (él/ella/usted) | está | |
| (nosotros/as) | estamos | |
| (vosotros/as) | estáis | |
| (ellos/ellas/ustedes) | están |
| (yo) |
| estoy |
| + present participle(-ando, -iendo, -iendo) |
| (tu) |
| estás |
| (él/ella/usted) |
| está |
| (nosotros/as) |
| estamos |
| (vosotros/as) |
| estáis |
| (ellos/ellas/ustedes) |
| están |
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)
