Estructuras






We are going to look at a verb tense that is useful to talk about something that is happening in the moment, ahora mismo (right now).
 
In English, it is very common for us to use this tense - we know it by seeing an “-ing” on the end of a verb. Any “-ing” word like “dancing”, “eating”, “calling” is called a present participle in English. Usually we pair it with the helping verb “to be” to make “is dancing”, “is eating”, and “are calling”. The combination of “to be” with a present participle is called the present progressive.
 
In Spanish, the same thing exists, it is called el presente progresivo. We use the verb “estar” (verbo auxiliar) changed to match the subject, then we combine it with the participio presente of another verb to form el presente progresivo.
 
The present participles of verbs in Spanish depend on whether the verb ends in -ar, -er o -ir.
 
  infinitivo raiz participio
presente
verbos que terminan en -AR hablar habl- hablando 
verbos que terminan en -ER tener ten teniendo 
verbos que terminan en -IR vivir viv viviendo 
 
Los verbos que terminan en “-ar” llevan “-ando”. Los verbos que terminan en “-er” o “-ir” llevan “iendo”.
 
el verbo estar + el participio presente de otro verbo = el presente progresivo
 
  Unos ejemplos de la lecciĂłn:
 
TĂș y los demĂĄs estĂĄn aprendiendo mucho sobre Colombia. You and the other teams are learning a lot about Colombia.
EstĂĄn viendo muchas cosas nuevas. They are seeing a lot of new things.
¿Qué estån haciendo en el video? What are they doing in the video?
 
OJO: Remember - whatever your subject is (tĂș, ella, los jugadores, etc.) you will change/conjugate “estar” to match it.
 
TĂș estĂĄs bailando. 
Él estĂĄ bailando.  
Nosotros estamos bailando. 
 
There are some verbs that have a present participle that changes its spelling. Here are some common examples:
 
  MĂĄs ejemplos
caer cayendo 
creer creyendo 
leer leyendo 
traer trayendo 
incluir incluyendo 
oĂ­r oyendo 
ir yendo 
decir diciendo 
pedir pidiendo 
repetir repitiendo 
seguir siguiendo 
venir viniendo 
poder pudiendo 
dormir durmiendo 
morir muriendo 
 
OJO: The present participle of “ir” is special. We will very rarely use “estar + yendo” to describe what is going on in the moment. Instead we will just use the regular present tense.
Por ejemplo: You would never say “Estoy yendo a la tienda”. We would use the present tense: “Voy a la tienda”. However, sometimes you will see “yendo” used in a way such as this:
Use of "yendo"  
Yendo por la calle principal, verĂĄs la muralla. Going down the main street, you will see the wall.
 
ÂĄPracticamos en la pĂĄgina siguiente!