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¡Hola! Let's explore how to talk about things happening right now using the present progressive tense.
The present progressive tells what is happening at this very moment. In English, we say 'I am eating' or 'they are running'. In Spanish, we build this using two parts: the helper verb estar (to be) and a main action verb.
Step one is conjugating the verb estar (to be) to match who is doing the action. For example, use 'estoy' (I am), 'estás' (you are), or 'está' (he/she/it is). This part acts like our anchor in the sentence.
Step text two is changing the action verb into a gerund (the '-ing' word). For '-ar' verbs, drop the ending and add '-ando'. For '-er' and '-ir' verbs, drop the ending and add '-iendo'. For example, hablar (to speak) becomes hablando (speaking).
Translate the sentence: 'We are eating lunch right now' into Spanish using the present progressive. The verb for 'to eat lunch' is 'almorzar' (ahl-mor-THAHR).
- Identify the subject of the sentence, which is 'We' ('nosotros' — noh-SOH-trohs).
- Conjugate the helper verb 'estar' for 'we'. This gives us 'estamos' (eh-STAH-mohs).
- Take the action verb 'almorzar' and drop its '-ar' ending to get the stem 'almorz-'.
- Add the ending '-ando' to the stem because 'almorzar' is an '-ar' verb. This creates 'almorzando' (ahl-mor-THAHN-doh).
- Put the two parts together: 'Estamos almorzando' (We are eating lunch).