the Spanish present continuous

when to use it

Use it for what is going on as you speak, and only for that. Spanish is stricter about this than English: for a habit, or for something happening these days in general, the plain present is what a Spanish speaker uses.

Words that tend to sit with it: ahora, en este momento, ahora mismo

• estoy comiendo ~ I am eating
• están escuchando música ~ they are listening to music

how to build it

Two parts: estar (present), which changes for the person, and the gerund (the -ing word), which does not.

one verb from each group

The three regular patterns side by side, so the only thing changing between columns is the group the verb belongs to.

what goes wrong

Using it for the future. English happily says I am going to Spain tomorrow; Spanish cannot, and needs voy a ir a España mañana.

Estar is regular here, so the only thing that can go wrong is the gerund. Dormir gives durmiendo, pedir gives pidiendo, decir gives diciendo, and a stem ending in a vowel takes a y instead of an i: leyendo, oyendo.

common questions

how do you form the present continuous in Spanish?

Conjugate estar in the present - estoy, estás, está, estamos, estáis, están - and add the gerund of the main verb. The gerund is -ando for -ar verbs and -iendo for -er and -ir verbs, and it never changes for person.

what are the irregular gerunds in Spanish?

A small group of -ir verbs change their stem vowel: dormir gives durmiendo, pedir gives pidiendo, decir gives diciendo. Verbs whose stem ends in a vowel swap the i for a y: leer gives leyendo, oír gives oyendo. Estar itself is always regular here.