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Español II
Capítulo 3B
Present progressive
You should already know the following:
 In English, the present progressive can mean that something
is happening right now, is going on regularly in the present, or
is going to happen in the future.
Everyone is celebrating in the living room.
We are spending a lot of time together.
Tomorrow I am leaving for Venezuela.
 In Spanish, the present progressive can mean that something
is happening right now or is going on regularly in the present.
Todos están celebrando en la sala.
Estamos pasando mucho tiempo juntos.
Mañana salgo para Venezuela.
However, it is not used for what is going to happen in the future.
Instead, the simple present tense is used.
¿Vas a la fiesta?
Are you going to the party?
No, voy a la biblioteca.
No, I’m going to the library.
You should also know…
 …to form the present progressive, combine a conjugated form
of estar with the present participle. Form the present participle
by replacing -ar with –ando and –er or –ir with –iendo.
Mi perro está comiendo.
Estoy cantando. Le lo lai, le lo lai.
But as with everything in Spanish that is related to verbs, you
have irregular forms.
 When the stem of an –er or –ir verb ends in a vowel, form the present
participle by changing i to –y.
le→
leer→
leiendo→
leyendo
¿Estás leyendo?
Other verbs like this would be creer, oír, caer, construir, and traer.
 The participles of stem-changing –ir verbs like pedir, venir, dormir,
servir, decir, repetir, seguir, and vestir change e to i or o to u.
There are no stem changes for –ar and –er verbs.
dormir
→
durmiendo
seguir
→
siguiendo
 Again, the verb ir is not usually used in the present progressive. The
only time you would really use the present progressive of ir (yendo) is
when it is in its reflexive form. Remember irse? Do you remember
what it means? That’s correct, to go away. So you can say:
Nos estamos yendo.
We are leaving.
 When you use an object pronoun (direct or indirect), or a reflexive
pronoun, once again as we have discussed before, it can go before the
conjugated form of the verb estar or can be attached to the end of the
present participle. When you attach the direct object or reflexive
pronoun to the end of the present participle, place an accent mark on
the stressed vowel. Again, you can count back 3 vowels.
¿Están Uds. esperando la guagua?
No, no la estamos esperando. o No, no estamos esperándola.
¿Me están escuchando?
Sí, te estamos escuchando. o Sí, estamos escuchándote.