The present progressive tense in Spanish is used to express things like:
- She is cooking the pizza
- I am walking to the park
It describes what people or things are doing at the moment.
It’s the easiest tense to learn in Spanish, which is why we teach it first.
In this articles we’ll cover:
- When to use the Spanish present progressive
- Spanish present progressive conjugation
- How to use the Spanish present progressive
- Practice time
- When NOT to use the present progressive
- Final words
Related article: The Complete Guide to Spanish Grammar
As this may well be the first tense you’ve learned in Spanish, we’re going to take it slow and easy.
When to use the Spanish present progressive
The Spanish present progressive, also called the present continuous, is used to talk about actions that are happening right now.
What are you doing right now? I am reading an article of LingoToGo
¿Qué estás haciendo ahora? Estoy leyendo un artículo de LingoToGo
Spanish present progressive conjugation
In this section, we’ll show you how to conjugate Spanish verbs in the present progressive.
NOTE: If the idea of “conjugation” is new to you, check out this article for a simple introduction: Spanish Conjugation Charts
In the Spanish present progressive, all the regular verb conjugations end in -ando or -iendo.
Verbs ending in -ar in the infinitive always have the -ando ending in the present progressive.
Verbs ending in -er or -ir in the infinitive always have the -iendo ending in the present progressive.
This makes them pretty easy to conjugate and to recognize.
There are both regular and irregular verbs in the present progressive tense.
Let’s start with the regular verbs.
Regular verbs in Spanish present progressive
Right now you may be wondering what the heck are regular verbs?! Don’t worry, we’ll explain…
In all tenses in Spanish (past, present and future…) there are regular and irregular verbs.
The regular verbs are the ones that keep the stem of the word and you just change the ending.
What’s “the stem of a verb”? Well, that’s the part before the -ar, -er, or -ir in the verb’s infinitive. So…
- The stem of the verb caminar is camin-
- The stem of the verb comer is com-
- The stem of the verb vivir is viv-
Still confused?
Let’s make it clear with some examples:
-ar verbs use -ando | -er use -iendo | -ir verbs use -iendo |
to walk – walking caminar – caminando | to eat – eating comer – comiendo | to live – living vivir – viviendo |
to cook – cooking cocinar – cocinando | to drink – drinking beber – bebiendo | to write – writing escribir – escribiendo |
Here we keep the stem of the verb and we add the ending to make it a progressive.
You see how easy is it now?
Here’s a useful memory trick:
ing: ando / iendo
Just memorize that like a song that gets stuck in your head, and you’ll know the fundamental conjugation rule of the present progressive.
Irregular verbs Spanish present progressive
Now, there are verbs in Spanish where the stem of the words changes when it is conjugated.
These verbs are called irregular verbs.
They take extra work to learn. But there’s no need to freak out. All it takes is a little practice with a native Spanish speaker for them to become natural and automatic.
So, here are the conjugations of the most common irregular Spanish verbs in the present progressive.
English –ing | Spanish -ando / -iendo |
to say – saying | decir – diciendo |
to feel – feeling | sentir – sintiendo |
to sleep – sleeping | dormir – durmiendo |
to ask – asking | pedir – pidiendo |
to come – coming | venir – viniendo |
to laugh – laughing | reír – riendo |
There is just another group of irregular verbs with the -yendo ending. Let’s check it out.
The -yendo ending
There are a few irregular verbs where the present progressive ending is -yendo.
Here are the most common verbs with the -yendo ending.
English –ing | Verbs -yendo |
to read – reading | leer – leyendo |
to go – going | ir – yendo |
to bring – bringing | traer – trayendo |
to hear – hearing | oír – oyendo |
to believe – believing | creer – creyendo |
There’s a complicated rule for when to use the -yendo ending instead of -iendo, which we’ll give you in a sec.
But the simple answer is because it just sounds better.
Here is a comparison of what the conjugations would be if they used the regular -iendo ending (incorrect) and the -yendo ending (correct). Try saying them out loud.
- liendo (incorrect) and leyendo (correct)
- iendo (incorrect) and yendo (correct)
- traiendo (incorrect) and trayendo (correct)
- oiendo (incorrect) and oyendo (correct)
- creiendo (incorrect) and creyendo (correct).
Seriously, don’t just read them in your head. Literally say them out loud.
You’ll notice that the incorrect versions are kind of hard to say and just sound ugly. You really have to twist your mouth up to say “creiendo” whereas “creyendo” just rolls off the tongue.
So, the simple rule of thumb is that if the regular -iendo conjugation would just sound ugly, then use the -yendo conjugation instead.
Now here’s the formal rule:
“When the stem of the verb finishes in a vowel and also has an irregular form it is necessary to change the ending -iendo and use instead the ending -yendo.”
But we prefer “If it sounds really ugly with -iendo then use -yendo instead.”
How to use the Spanish present progressive
Now that you know the conjugations, actually using the Present progressive in Spanish is super easy.
Basically, it is the same as in English.
You just have to conjugate the verb estar to match the subject pronoun (I, you, he/she…) and then follow it with the -ando or -iendo conjugation.
Here’s an example:
Subject pronoun | estar | -ando / -iendo |
I | am | studying |
Yo | estoy | estudiando |
Got it?
Here are more examples showing all the subject pronouns and estar conjugations:
Subject pronoun | Estar | -ando / -iendo |
I Yo | am estoy | cooking cocinando |
You Tú | are estas | walking caminando |
He – She Él – Ella – Usted | is está | reading leyendo |
We Nosotros – Nosotras | are estamos | bringing trayendo |
You Ustedes – Ellos – Ellas | are están | drinking bebiendo |
Let’s check some more examples:
- She is cooking the pizza
Ella está cocinando la pizza
- I can not go out, it is raining
No puedo salir, está lloviendo
- I am walking to the park now
Yo estoy caminando al parque ahora
- Look! The dogs is playing with the cat
¡Mira! el perro está jugando con el gato
- We are going to your house right now
Nosotros estamos yendo para tu casa ahora mismo
- Ana is not studying now, she is sleeping
Ana no está estudiando ahora, ella está durmiendo
- What are you doing Juan?
¿Qué estás haciendo Juan?
- Are you coming to my house now?
¿Estás viniendo para mi casa ahora?
A note about reflexive verbs
When it comes to reflexive verbs, you can place the reflexive pronoun (me, te, nos, se) before the estar part of the sentence or after the end of the -ando/-iendo verb.
Let’s check both cases with some examples:
- Look! Ana is waking up now
¡Mira! Ana se está despertando ahora
¡Mira! Ana está despertandose ahora
- I am washing my hands
Yo me estoy lavando las manos
Yo estoy lavandome las manos
Both versions have exactly the same meaning, so it’s really a matter of personal preference which one you use when you’re talking.
However, you’ll hear both in conversation, so you need to be able to understand both when your listening.
Practice time
Now it is your turn to practice.
In these exercises, you’re going to fill in the blanks with the Spanish present progressive in each example sentence.
Here’s an example of how the exercises work:
Question:
Juan is walking in the park
Juan ______ (caminar) en el parque
Answer:
Juan está caminando en el parque
So here we go. Fill in the blanks with the Spanish present progressive:
- I am reading the newspaper
Yo _____________ (leer) el periódico
- They are eating pasta in the Italian restaurant
Ellos _______________ (comer) pasta en el restaurante Italiano
- We are writing a letter for the teacher
Nosotros _______________ (escribir) una carta para el maestro
- What are you doing right now?
¿Qué ______________ (hacer) ahora mismo?
- Are you cooking all the food
¿_________________ (cocinar) toda la comida?
- Are you all traveling to Spain together?
¿______________ (viajar) a España juntos
- I am washing my hands
_______________ (lavar) las manos
- Luis is not coming to the party right now
Luis ______________ (venir) a la fiesta ahora mismo
- I am studying Spanish at LingoToGo
Yo ______________ (estudiar) español en LingoToGo
- I am not studying Italian, I am studying Spanish now
Yo ____________ (estudiar) Italiano, Yo ______________ (estudiar) español ahora
Note: The answers are at the end of the article.
Would you like some help?
Feel free to drop me a line if you have any questions.
Or if you prefer, I’d be happy to set you up with private classes with one of our awesome, friendly Spanish teachers.
Either way, it would be good to ‘meet’ you.
– María, [email protected]
When NOT to use the present progressive
Just a quick word of caution before we wrap up.
When a Spanish sentence in the present progressive tense is translated into English, the English verb always ends in -ing, like in the examples above: cooking, walking, doing, reading.
So, it would be easy to think that it should work the other way around – that any sentence in English that has a verb ending in -ing should be translated into Spanish using the present progressive tense.
But that’s not the case.
For example:
- “I’m going to get up early tomorrow” is translated using the near future tense in Spanish
- “I like reading” is translated using the infinitive in Spanish, more like “I like to read“
So, don’t think of the present progressive as translating all verbs in English that end in -ing. Rather as a way to talk about things that are happening at the moment.
Final words
Yeah! Now you know all about the present progressive tense in Spanish.
What is next ? Practice makes perfect.
If you practice the imperfect tense with a native Spanish speaker you will master it pretty quickly.
Drop me a line to set you up with private classes with one of our awesome, friendly Spanish teachers.
– María, [email protected]
Answers
Here are the answers to the exercises of the Spanish present progressive.
- I am reading the newspaper
Yo estoy leyendo el periódico
- They are eating pasta in the Italian restaurant
Ellos están comiendo pasta en el restaurante Italiano
- We are writing a letter for the teacher
Nosotros estamos escribiendo una carta para el maestro
- What are you doing right now?
¿Qué estás haciendo ahora mismo?
- Are you cooking all the food
¿Estás cocinando toda la comida?
- Are you all traveling to Spain together?
¿Están viajando a España juntos
- I am washing my hands
Me estoy lavando las manos / Estoy lavandome las manos
- Luis is not coming to the party right now
Luis no está viniendo a la fiesta ahora mismo
- I am studying at LingoToGo
Yo estoy estudiando español en LingoToGo
- I am not studying Italian, I am studying Spanish now
Yo no estoy estudiando Italiano, yo estoy estudiando español ahora