Tabla de Contenidos
In Spanish, the present progressive is formed with the verb “to be”, conjugated in the simple present tense, followed by a gerund. Some of the most common examples are: “I am eating”, “he is sleeping” or “we are talking”.
What is present progressive
The present progressive is a tense of the present that refers to actions that happen at the same moment in which it is spoken. That is, it expresses an action that is happening now, at this precise moment.
To recognize progressive tense, one can ask the question: What are you/are you doing right now?
Examples:
- “My friends and I are playing poker.”
- “Lucía is watching television.”
- “Marta is going to the pharmacy.”
- “They are buying some presents for Christmas.”
- I am writing a new novel.
What is the present progressive used for?
The present progressive is used for:
- Describe actions or events that the subject is doing at the time of speaking: “I’m cooking now.”
- Talking about actions that are going to take place in the very near future: “We’re going to see you in a bit.”
- Express current actions that continue over time: «I am working in a clothing store».
- Sometimes it can also be used to indicate something that is constantly happening, even though it is not happening at this exact moment: “I am suffering from the separation.”
Difference between the simple present and the progressive
The difference between the simple present and the progressive is that the latter emphasizes that the action is happening right now. Instead, the simple present refers to actions that happen in a habitual or routine way.
However, in many cases, the difference between these tenses in terms of the meaning of the sentence is very subtle and depends on the context.
How is the present progressive formed?
To learn how to form the present progressive it is important to know its components: the verb to be and the gerunds.
The verb to be
The verb to be is one of the most versatile in Spanish: it has different meanings and is used to form other verb tenses. It is mainly used for:
- Indicate the location of people or objects in space: “My glass is on the table”; “My sister is in Spain.”
- Express states of people or things: “I’m sad”; “The coffee cup is hot.”
- Indicate the marital status of a person: “I am divorced”; “I’m single”.
- Expressing a temporary occupation: «I am a lawyer, but I am a receptionist in a hotel».
Conjugation of the verb to be
In the present progressive tense, the conjugation of the verb to be used is that of the present simple.
| Pronoun | Conjugation of «to be » |
| I | I’m |
| You | Are |
| He she | This |
| Us | We are |
| You | you are |
| They | Are |
What is the gerund
The gerund is the impersonal form of a verb, just like the infinitive and the past participle. The gerund indicates that the action is taking place at this moment and is characterized by ending in -ando or -iendo.
Gerund of regular verbs
To form the gerund of a regular verb, the following must be done:
- Take the root of the verb in the infinitive. (The stem of regular Spanish verbs is the part that does not change during conjugation, the section before their ending -ar, -er, or -ir.)
- Add the suffix -ando, if the verb belongs to the first group of regular verbs (ending in -ar).
- Add the suffix -iendo, if the verb belongs to the second or third group (verbs ending in -er or -ir).
For example:
- To speak: habl (root) + ando (suffix) = speaking; think = thinking; love = loving
- Eat: com (root) + iendo (suffix) = eating; run = running; do = doing; drink = drinking
- Open: abr (root) + iendo (suffix) = opening; write = writing; live = living
Gerund of irregular verbs
In the case of irregular verbs, the gerund is formed by making some changes to the roots of the verbs:
- Changing «e» by «i»: say = saying; feel = feeling; laugh = laughing
- Replacing “o” with “u”: sleep = sleeping; power = being able
- Adding “and”: read = reading; fall = falling; go = going.
How to form the present progressive
Taking into account what was mentioned before, the progressive form of the present is formed by conjugating the verb “to be” plus the gerund of the verb that represents the action.
The verb to be must be conjugated according to the person or the subject that performs the action. For example: “I’m leaving for there.” In this case, the verb “to be” was conjugated according to the first person singular and the gerund of the verb “to go out” was added.
To better understand how the present progressive is formed, let’s see this example, with the verb “to speak”, which is one of the most used in everyday life.
| Pronoun | Verb to be | Gerund |
| I | I’m | talking |
| You | are | talking |
| He she | this | talking |
| Us | we are | talking |
| You | you are | talking |
| They | are | talking |
12 examples of sentences in present progressive
Some of the most frequent examples of present progressive are:
- I am running a marathon.
- Those boys are playing soccer.
- I am fixing my bike.
- We are studying for the exam.
- My sister is making a cake for my birthday.
- He is always looking at his mobile.
- Now we are cleaning the house a bit.
- I’m preparing what I need to bring tomorrow.
- The girl is singing a BTS song.
- Juan is taking some documents to work.
- Begoña is talking about politics.
- The temperatures are rising more and more.
Other progressive tenses
In addition to the present, there are other progressive tenses that are formed and used in the same way. What will change is the verb “to be”, which instead of being conjugated in the present, will be conjugated in the corresponding tense.
Other progressive tenses are:
- The past progressive: describes an action that, although it continued for a period of time, came to a definitive end. For example: “My brother was sending his resume to various companies until yesterday.”
- The imperfect tense: expresses a continuous action about whose end there is no certainty. For example: “My brother was sending his resume to various companies.”
- The pluperfect past tense: indicates an action that happened before another that also happened in the past. “She had been cleaning the house that weekend.”
It is important to note that the use of these tenses are not as frequent as the present progressive.
Bibliography
- Gómez Torrego, L. Didactic grammar of Spanish. (2010). Spain. SM Editions.
- RAE. Manual of the New Grammar of the Spanish language. (2010). Spain. Espasa.
- Various authors. Basic grammar of the Spanish student (2005). Spain. Diffusion SL
