Presente Continuo

Estoy descansando en la playa

Throughout the whole first module of this tutorial you have been learning to build sentences in Presente Simple. It’s a huge volume of information, but it’s not enough to express everything in the present tense. What is missing is the possibility to talk about events that are happening right now. It’s time to learn Presente Continuo.

The first thing you should know is that there is a special grammar construction in Spanish, that allows to say that some actions are being performed at the moment of the speech, in other words, now.

estar + gerundio

Estoy hablando por teléfono – I’m speaking over the phone

Juan está comiendo – Juan is eating

In contrast, if you express these actions using the simple present tense and say Hablo por teléfono or Juan come, it will mean that these actions take place in general or regularly, but not necessarily now. To point out that it’s happening at this exact moment, use estar + gerundio.

¿Qué estás haciendo ahora? – What are you doing now?

Estoy trabajando – I’m working

You are already familiar with the verb estar. It takes forms of Presente Simple: estoy, estás, está, etc. The second element is yet unknown to you. It’s called gerund, or gerundio in Spanish.

Take a look at how gerund is created.

ar: ando

er, ir: iendo

It’s very simple. If a verb ends in ar, you change ar to ando. If a verb ends in er or ir, change them to iendo.

hablar – hablando

bailar – bailando

comer – comiendo

aprender – aprendiendo

escribir – escribiendo

abrir – abriendo

Try it yourself:

preparar – …

jugar – …

beber – …

correr – …

vivir – …

traducir – …

It’s quite easy to conjugate Spanish verbs in Presente Continuo.

bailar

yo – estoy bailando

tú – estás bailando

él, ella, usted – está bailando

nosotros – estamos bailando

vosotros – estáis bailando

ellos, ellas, ustedes – están bailando

As you can see, the gerund is a stable verb form, that is never changed.

Conjugate the following verbs on your own: pensar, correr, conducir.

Try it yourself:

What are you doing?

I’m playing with the dog

What are your friends doing?

They are learning Spanish

What are you doing? (vosotros)

We are writing a test

What is Alejandro doing?

He is taking a rest

You can also notice that gerund (preparando, comiendo) resembles participle (preparado, comido). They may seem similar, but they are separate verb forms, which are needed in different circumstances. It’s like preparing and prepared, or eating and eaten in English.

As you can imagine, to change the sentence in Presente Continuo into the negative form, you should put no before estar.

No estoy bebiendo nada — I’m not drinking anything

Lucía no está bailando con Antonio — Lucia isn’t dancing with Antonio

¿Por qué no estás estudiando español? — Why aren’t you learning Spanish?

Try it yourself:

I’m not working

Aren’t you cooking?

We aren’t doing anything

Irregular gerunds

There are some verbs that have irregular gerund forms.

leer — leyendo

oír — oyendo

decir — diciendo

dormir — durmiendo

ir — yendo

Estoy leyendo un libro interesante — I’m reading an interesting book

¿Qué estáis diciendo? — What are you saying?

As for the verb ir, it’s not so common to use it in Presente Continuo. Normally, even if the action is happening now, everyone just says:

¿Adónde vas? – Where are you going?

Voy al festival – I’m going to the festival

Nevertheless, sometimes you can hear someone use estar + gerund with ir, but it’s not so frequent as in English.

Estoy yendo en autobús – I’m going on a bus

Estamos yendo al festival – We are going to the festival

The next lesson will be dedicated to the irregular gerunds and some more important details about Presente Continuo. Keep on learning.