Learn Spanish (Latin America): El bebé está durmiendo ahora.

El bebé está durmiendo ahora.

The baby is sleeping now.

Breakdown of El bebé está durmiendo ahora.

estar

to be (location/state)

Questions & Answers about El bebé está durmiendo ahora.

Why is it durmiendo instead of dormiendo?

The verb for 'to sleep' is dormir. Normally, to make an '-ing' word (a gerund) for an -ir verb, you just drop the -ir and add -iendo. However, dormir is a common irregular verb. The o changes to a u, making it durmiendo.

Why do we use está here instead of es?

To talk about actions happening right now (the present continuous), Spanish always uses the verb estar (to be) plus the '-ing' word. We never use ser to talk about actions in progress. Since el bebé is one person (he/she), we use the form está.

Could I just say El bebé duerme ahora instead of está durmiendo?

Yes, you can! In Spanish, the simple present tense (duerme meaning 'sleeps') can also translate to 'is sleeping' in English. However, using está durmiendo strongly emphasizes that the baby is in the middle of sleeping right at this exact moment.

Why is there an accent mark on the last letter in bebé?