Breakdown of Está lloviendo mucho, pero ellos están pintando la pared.
ellos
they (m)
pero
but
mucho
a lot
estar
to be (location/state)
Questions & Answers about Está lloviendo mucho, pero ellos están pintando la pared.
Why are there two different endings (-iendo and -ando) for the '-ing' verbs in this sentence?
In Spanish, the '-ing' form of a verb (called a gerund) depends on its infinitive ending. For verbs ending in -er or -ir, like llover (to rain), you drop the ending and add -iendo to get lloviendo. For verbs ending in -ar, like pintar (to paint), you add -ando to get pintando.
Why does the sentence use está for the rain but están for the painters?
When making the present continuous ('is doing' or 'are doing'), the verb estar has to match the subject. Because weather doesn't have a person as the subject, Spanish uses the singular 'it' form: está. Since 'they are painting' has the plural subject ellos (they), we use the plural form: están. Notice that the gerunds (lloviendo and pintando) never change to match the subject!
How is está lloviendo different from just saying llueve?
Both can translate to 'it is raining', but está lloviendo (the present continuous) strongly emphasizes that the rain is happening right now, at this exact moment. If you use the simple present llueve, it can mean it is raining now, but it is also used for general statements, like 'it rains a lot here'.
Why does the sentence use mucho and not muy?