Estructuras

 
In the last lesson we looked at el presente progresivo. We are going to add another helping verb (verbo auxiliar) that we can use with el presente progresivo. In the last lesson, we used “estar” and el participio presente (verbs ending in -ando, -iendo) to form el presente progresivo.
 
There is a verb we can use in place of “estar” that gives us more ways to use el presente progresivo. Vamos a ver el verbo “seguir”:
 
Seguir: to continue or to follow
(yo) sigo
(nosotros)
(nosotras) 		seguimos
(tú) sigues
(vosotros)
(vosotras) 		seguís
él
ella
usted 		sigue
ellos
ellas
ustedes 		siguen
 
We know that el presente progresivo is used to describe something happening in the moment, that is going on at the time.
 
 Por ejemplo:
   La niña está escribiendo una carta.
   The girl is writing a letter (right now).
If we use “seguir” instead of “estar” in this sentence, it would read:
La niña sigue escribiendo una carta.
The girl is still writing a letter / The girl continues writing a letter.
 
Notice how it changes the meaning for us to mean that she has continued writing the letter, for a period of time (but we aren’t sure how long).
 
el verbo seguir + el participio presente de otro verbo = el presente progresivo
 
OJO: Remember, los verbos auxiliares change to match our subjects, then we use los participios presentes of the second verb to finish the sentence.
 
Using “seguir” in el presente progresivo gives a way to describe an action that is ongoing (still happening), or continues to happen. Miremos unos ejemplos en la página de práctica.