volver, volver y volver?

Question

vuelvo vs. volviendo    i thought iendo=ing     when the chicos vuelvan... they return.   isn't 'are returning' estan volviendo???

Accepted Answer

Hola Elizabeth
I imagine you are referring to this sentence in the lesson:

Los chicos vuelven temprano del colegio.
The boys are returning early from school.

We are using here the most natural translation in English. In Spanish sometimes we use the present tense (e.g. vuelven) to express a "future" action instead of a regular present action -it depends on the context. This is why in English you have a tense reflecting a future action "are returning" but you have the present tense "vuelven" in Spanish.
 I hope this clarified it.
Saludos
Inma