The Present Continuous
To describe actions happening right now, use the present continuous tense. Form it with a conjugated form of estar (to be) and a gerund (the Spanish "-ing" equivalent).
| Subject | estar |
|---|---|
| yo | estoy |
| tú | estás |
| él / ella / usted | está |
| nosotros / nosotras | estamos |
| ellos / ellas / ustedes | están |
Forming the Gerund
For regular verbs, drop the infinitive ending and add:
- -ando for -ar verbs (e.g., charlar → charlando)
- -iendo for -er and -ir verbs (e.g., esconder → escondiendo)
| The friends are chatting in the living room. | Las amigas están charlando en la sala. |
| I am hiding the gift. | Estoy escondiendo el regalo. |
Irregular Gerunds
When an -er or -ir verb stem ends in a vowel, -iendo becomes -yendo to make it easier to pronounce (e.g., leer → leyendo, construir → construyendo, caer → cayendo).
| I am reading a very interesting book. | Estoy leyendo un libro muy interesante. |
| Are they building a new hospital? | ¿Están construyendo un hospital nuevo? |
Other irregulars have a stem vowel change, like dormir (to sleep) becoming durmiendo and reír (to laugh) becoming riendo.
| The baby is sleeping now. | El bebé está durmiendo ahora. |
| Why is the baby laughing? | ¿Por qué está riendo el bebé? |
Pronouns with the Present Continuous
Reflexive pronouns (like se) or direct object pronouns (like lo) can be placed directly before the conjugated form of estar.
| He is taking a shower now. | Se está bañando ahora. |
| Are you reading it? | ¿Lo estás leyendo? |
Your questions are stored by us to improve Elon.io