Spanish Classroom-Present Progressive Tense in Spanish

The present progressive tense combines the present indicative of the verb estar (to be) with the present participle of another verb to indicate an action in progress. The present progressive tells what a person “is doing” right now.

• Estoy hablando con mi madre. (I am speaking with my mother (right now).)
• Los niños están jugando en el patio. (The children are playing in the yard (right now).)
• ¿Estás yendo a la tienda ahora? (Are you going to the store now?)

The present participle never changes according to the tense. The progressive tense can be used in any time reference simply by changing the tense of estar, creating the present progressive, preterite progressive, the imperfect progressive, the future progressive, etc. This article explains how to form and when to use the present progressive tense.

Present Progressive Forms

The present progressive is a verb phrase consisting of both estar (the “is” part which indicates the tense) and the present participle (the “-ing” part which indicates what the action is). To form the present progressive, conjugate estar to the present indicative tense and add the present participle form of the verb that the person is actually doing. Present Progressive Formula: estar + present participle (verb stem + -ando for -ar verbs/-iendo for -er and -ir verbs)

Estoy hablando	I am speaking	Estamos hablando	We are speaking
Estás hablando	You are speaking	Estáis hablando	You (all) are speaking
Está hablando	You (formal) are speaking He/she is speaking	Están hablando	You (all, formal) are speaking They are speaking