Spanish Present tense
El presente de indicativo is the present tense of the indicative mood. It's used to express current actions and states of being.
The simple present tense in Spanish is equivalent to the English simple present.
Look at and listen to these examples:
Note that whilst Spanish, like English, has a continous form (estoy hablando - I'm talking), the simple present form is commonly used where in English we would use the present continuous/progressive form.
In English, it often sounds very strange to use the simple present for something that's happening or about to happen, but it's completely normal in Spanish. Consider:
"¿Qué haces?"
"Muevo las cajas."
It would be totally weird to translate this as:
"What (do) you do?"
"I move the boxes."
Instead a more natural translation would be:
"What are you doing?"
"I'm moving the boxes."
See also: Spanish Present Tenses and All Spanish Tenses
