Forming the present progressive/continuous in Spanish with estar + present participle (El Presente Progresivo)

The Spanish present tense has a continuous (progressive) form to express an action which is ongoing in the present. It works in a similar way to the English present continuous:

Learn about El Presente Progresivo in Spanish

 To express a continuing or ongoing present action in Spanish you will follow this pattern for most regular verbs:

First of all you will need estar in El Presente:

And then: 

Here's a reminder on how to form the present participle/gerund in Spanish. To form the present participle/gerund of the main action verb (which finishes in -ando/-iendo = the equivalent of the -ing form in English) you need to drop the ending of the infinitive and add the suffix -ando/-iendo):

For regular gerunds/present participles in Spanish see:

• Forming regular gerunds in Spanish (-ing form)

For irregular gerunds/present participles in Spanish see:

• Verb list: Irregular gerunds/present participles of the form -iendo
• Verb list: Irregular gerunds/present participles of the form -yendo
• Forming irregular gerunds in Spanish (-ing form)

See also Forming the progressive imperfect with estar + present participle (El Imperfecto progresivo/contínuo)).