Present progressive in Spanish
The Complete Guide

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: 

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:

1. I am reading the newspaper
   Yo _____________ (leer) el periódico

2. They are eating pasta in the Italian restaurant
   Ellos _______________ (comer) pasta en el restaurante Italiano

3. We are writing a letter for the teacher
   Nosotros _______________ (escribir) una carta para el maestro

4. What are you doing right now?
   ¿Qué ______________ (hacer) ahora mismo?

5. Are you cooking all the food
   ¿_________________ (cocinar) toda la comida?

6. Are you all traveling to Spain together?
   ¿______________ (viajar) a España juntos

7. I am washing my hands
   _______________ (lavar) las manos

8. Luis is not coming to the party right now
   Luis ______________ (venir) a la fiesta ahora mismo

9. I am studying Spanish at LingoToGo
   Yo ______________ (estudiar) español en LingoToGo

10. 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.

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.

1. I am reading the newspaper
   Yo estoy leyendo el periódico

2. They are eating pasta in the Italian restaurant
   Ellos están comiendo pasta en el restaurante Italiano

3. We are writing a letter for the teacher
   Nosotros estamos escribiendo una carta para el maestro

4. What are you doing right now?
   ¿Qué estás haciendo ahora mismo?

5. Are you cooking all the food
   ¿Estás cocinando toda la comida?

6. Are you all traveling to Spain together?
   ¿Están viajando a España juntos

7. I am washing my hands
   Me estoy lavando las manos / Estoy lavandome las manos

8. Luis is not coming to the party right now
   Luis no está viniendo a la fiesta ahora mismo

9. I am studying at LingoToGo
   Yo estoy estudiando español en LingoToGo

10. I am not studying Italian, I am studying Spanish now
    Yo no estoy estudiando Italiano, yo estoy estudiando español ahora