The Spanish present tense has a continuous (progressive) form to express an action which is ongoing in the present. It works in a similar way to the English present continuous:
Learn about El Presente Progresivo in Spanish
To express a continuing or ongoing present action in Spanish you will follow this pattern for most regular verbs:
First of all you will need estar in El Presente:
yo | estoy |
tú | estás |
él / ella / Ud. | está |
nosotros/nosotras |
estamos |
vosotros /vosotras |
estáis |
ellos / ellas / Uds. | están |
And then:
Estar in El Presente + |
-ando (-AR verbs) |
-iendo (-ER and -IR verbs) |
Here's a reminder on how to form the present participle/gerund in Spanish. To form the present participle/gerund of the main action verb (which finishes in -ando/-iendo = the equivalent of the -ing form in English) you need to drop the ending of the infinitive and add the suffix -ando/-iendo):
hablar → habl- = hablando
correr → corr- = corriendo
For regular gerunds/present participles in Spanish see:
For irregular gerunds/present participles in Spanish see:
- List of Spanish irregular gerunds/present participles of the form -iendo
- List of Spanish irregular gerunds/present participles of the form -yendo
- Forming irregular gerunds in Spanish (-ing form)
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