El presente progresivo

Guía de referencia rápida
Quick reference guide

Instructions for Forming the Present Progressive in Spanish

The present progressive in Spanish is used to describe ongoing actions that are happening at the moment. Here's how to form it:

1. Conjugate estar

First, conjugate the verb estar according to the subject of the sentence:

Yo estoy
Tú estás
Él/Ella/Usted está
Nosotros/Nosotras estamos
Ellos/Ellas/Ustedes están

2. Form the "-ing" form of the Action Verb

For -ar verbs: Replace -ar with -ando.
- Example: hablar → hablando (talking)
For -er and -ir verbs: Replace -er or -ir with -iendo.
- Example: comer → comiendo (eating)
- Example: escribir → escribiendo (writing)

Examples:

Yo estoy hablando. (I am talking / speaking.)
Tú estás comiendo. (You are eating.)
Ella está leyendo. (She is reading.) (This one is a little irregular.)

(There are a few more irregular forms. As you can probably guess, they're the same verbs that are irregular or stem-change verbs when we conjugate in the simple present tense.)

Ejemplos español → inglés

Español	English (Write the example sentence in English)
Estoy hablando con mi amigo.
Estás comiendo una manzana.
Ella está escribiendo una carta (a letter).
Estamos aprendiendo español.
Están corriendo por la cancha de fútbol.	.

Ejemplos inglés → español

English	Español (Write the example sentence in Spanish.)
I am watching a movie (una película).
She is reading a book. (Look on this paper to find an example with "leer", it is a little irregular)
We are cooking in the kitchen.
You are swimming in the sea.
They are dancing.	.

Try a couple of weather sentences:
1) Está lloviendo en Valparaíso, Chile. →
2) Está nevando en Bariloche, Argentina. →