THE PRESENT PROGRESSIVE The present progressive

THE PRESENT PROGRESSIVE
The present progressive in Spanish is formed the same way it is in English: with the present tense of the
verb to be and a present participle, ending with –ing:
I’m talking to your teacher.
In English (NOT in Spanish), I can say this if I’m talking to your teacher at this very moment OR if I’m talking
to him/her in the future:
I’m talking to your teacher tomorrow night.
But in Spanish, you can use the progressive ONLY if the action described is being done AT THAT MOMENT,
as opposed to something that one is currently doing. In other words, if I were at someone’s house and
were asked what I do for a living, I might say “I’m currently teaching Spanish at Jesuit.” I couldn’t use the
present progressive to say that in Spanish, because at that moment I’m not teaching; I’m talking to
someone about what I do. Likewise, I could not use the progressive to talk about what I’m doing later.
Compare:
DOING RIGHT NOW:
I’m talking to my students.
Estoy hablando con mis estudiantes.
DOING ON & OFF CURRENTLY:
I’m teaching at Jesuit.
Enseño para Jesuit.
Ways to express immediacy:
DOING IN THE FUTURE:
I’m teaching the imperfect next week.
Enseño el imperfecto la semana que viene.
en este(estos) momento(s): at this moment
ahora: now
ahorita/ahora mismo: right now
If it’s not in progress, I use the present tense.
FORMATION
ESTOY
ESTAMOS
ESTÁS
estáis
ESTÁ
ESTÁN
+
-ANDO (for –ar verbs)
-IENDO (for –er/-ir verbs)
estás remando
no estoy comiendo
PRONOUN PLACEMENT
Before the conjugated form of estar
ME ESTOY LEVANTANDO
or...
Attached to the participle
ESTOY LEVANTÁNDOME.
If you attach, you must place an accent mark over the vowel before the “n” of –ando/-iendo
STEM-CHANGING PARTICIPLES
Only –IR stem-changing verbs will have participles that stem-change. Like in the preterite, E goes to I and O
goes to U, even if the original verb changed to IE or UE.
decir ---> diciendo
pedir ---> pidiendo
dormir ---> durmiendo
I-to-Y PARTICIPLES
If an infinitive ends with 2 vowels + R (-aer, -eer, -uir and the verb oír), the “i” of –iendo will change to “y”,
since you can’t have an unaccented “i” between 2 vowels. This also happened in 3rd-person preterite.
leer ---> leyendo
caer ---> cayendo
oír ---> oyendo
influir ---> influyendo
The verbs seguir and conseguir are exempt, since the “u” is silent and affect the sound of the “g”.
seguir ---> siguiendo
conseguir ---> consiguiendo
NOTE: ser is regular (siendo), as are ver (viendo) and dar (dando). Ir is irregular (yendo) and rarely used.
PRÁCTICA Change from present indicative to present progressive
leo
__________________________________________
consiguen
__________________________________________
nos vestimos
_____________________________________ / _______________________________
duerme
_________________________________________
te caes
_________________________________ / ________________________________
piden
_________________________________________
construimos
________________________________________________
me muero
___________________________________ / _______________________________
oyes
________________________________________
veo
__________________________________________
OTHER PROGRESSIVE FORMS
Besides estar, you can use other verbs along with the gerund.
Verb
Use
Example
seguir
andar
to continue/keep on ___ing
to go around doing something
She keeps on falling
in love. (2 ways)
___
El profe sigue hablando y estoy muy aburrido.
Ese chico anda quejándose de todo. No lo soporto.
(or se anda quejando)
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
Why do you always go
around flirting with girls?
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
THE PAST (IMPERFECT) PROGRESSIVE
When expressing –ing actions in the past, you can do it 2 ways. One is to simply use the imperfect form of
the verb
I was teaching
Yo enseñaba
But if you want to emphasize that an action was in progress when it was interrupted by the preterite, use
the imperfect progressive.
I was (in the process of) teaching when the bell rang.
Estaba enseñando cuando sonó el timbre. OR Enseñaba cuando sonó el timbre.
There’s not much difference; it’s just that using the progressive emphasizes that the action was in progress
when it was interrupted.
It’s formed with the imperfect of estar; other than that, it’s just like the present progressive.
ESTABA
ESTABAS
ESTABA
ESTÁBAMOS
estabais
ESTABAN
-ando
+
-iendo (-yendo)
I was dreaming about a strict teacher when the phone rang. ________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
She and her single friend were arguing when he proposed. __________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
They were getting along well when we arrived. ____________________________________________________________
______________________________________ OR ________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________