If someone calls you and asks what you're doing at this very moment, you'll answer with the present progressive: Estoy cocinando. (I'm cooking.) This tense, called el presente progresivo in Spanish, describes actions in progress right now.
The formula is simple: a conjugated form of estar plus a special verb form called the gerund (gerundio), which does the same job the -ing form does in English. In this guide we'll cover how to build it, when to use it, and when to avoid it, because Spanish and English don't always agree on this last point.
The formula: estar + gerund
The first ingredient is the present tense of estar:
- yo estoy
- tú estás
- él/ella/usted está
- nosotros/nosotras estamos
- vosotros/vosotras estáis
- ellos/ellas/ustedes están
Note that estar, not ser, is the verb we conjugate here.
The second ingredient is the gerund, which never changes. Once you build it, it stays the same for every person:
Yo estoy trabajando. (I am working.)
Ellas están trabajando. (They are working.)
How to form the gerund
Take the infinitive, drop the ending, and add one of two suffixes:
- -ar verbs take -ando: hablar → hablando, caminar → caminando, estudiar → estudiando
- -er verbs take -iendo: comer → comiendo, beber → bebiendo, aprender → aprendiendo
- -ir verbs also take -iendo: vivir → viviendo, escribir → escribiendo, abrir → abriendo
Some examples in context:
Mi hermana está estudiando para su examen de biología. (My sister is studying for her biology exam.)
Los niños están comiendo en la cocina. (The kids are eating in the kitchen.)
Estamos escribiendo una carta para la abuela. (We are writing a letter for grandma.)
Gerunds with spelling changes
When the stem of an -er or -ir verb ends in a vowel, the I of -iendo would land between two vowels. Spanish doesn't like that, so the I becomes a Y, and the ending turns into -yendo:
- leer → leyendo (reading)
- oír → oyendo (hearing)
- creer → creyendo (believing)
- traer → trayendo (bringing)
- construir → construyendo (building)
- ir → yendo (going)
Estoy leyendo una novela argentina. (I'm reading an Argentinian novel.)
¿Me estás oyendo? (Are you hearing me?)
Gerunds with stem changes
Verbs ending in -ir that change their stem in the present tense also change it in the gerund, but in a milder way: E becomes I, and O becomes U.
- pedir → pidiendo (asking for)
- servir → sirviendo (serving)
- decir → diciendo (saying)
- repetir → repitiendo (repeating)
- seguir → siguiendo (following)
- venir → viniendo (coming)
- dormir → durmiendo (sleeping)
- morir → muriendo (dying)
El camarero está sirviendo la sopa. (The waiter is serving the soup.)
El bebé está durmiendo, habla más bajo. (The baby is sleeping, speak more quietly.)
Note that this only happens with -ir verbs. Stem-changing verbs ending in -ar and -er keep their regular stem in the gerund: pensar gives pensando, and volver gives volviendo. We cover the whole system in our intro to Spanish stem-changing verbs.
When English uses -ing but Spanish doesn't
This is the most common trap for English speakers, so it deserves its own section.
First, Spanish never uses this tense to talk about the future. In English, you can say I'm flying to Miami tomorrow to talk about a plan. In Spanish, an arranged future action takes the simple present or ir a + infinitive, never the progressive:
Mañana vuelo a Miami. (I'm flying to Miami tomorrow.)
Voy a cenar con mis padres el viernes. (I'm having dinner with my parents on Friday.)
If you say estoy volando a Miami, a Spanish speaker will picture you on the plane, in the air, right now.
Second, when an -ing word acts as a noun in English, Spanish uses the infinitive, not the gerund:
Nadar es un ejercicio completo. (Swimming is a complete workout.)
Me encanta cocinar los domingos. (I love cooking on Sundays.)
Third, for body positions, English uses -ing where Spanish prefers estar plus a past participle: está sentada (she is sitting), está tumbado (he is lying down).
The weather: está lloviendo
Two verbs deserve a special mention: llover (to rain) and nevar (to snow). They are impersonal, so they only work in the third-person singular, and the progressive is the natural way to describe what's happening outside right now:
Está lloviendo mucho, coge un paraguas. (It's raining a lot, take an umbrella.)
¡Mira, está nevando! (Look, it's snowing!)
The simple present (llueve, nieva) describes habits and general facts instead: En Galicia llueve mucho. (It rains a lot in Galicia.) For more weather expressions, check out our guide on how to talk about the weather in Spanish.
Where do pronouns go?
With reflexive, direct object, or indirect object pronouns, you have two options, and both are correct.
Option one: put the pronoun before estar.
Me estoy duchando. (I'm taking a shower.)
Lo estamos preparando. (We are preparing it.)
Option two: attach the pronoun to the end of the gerund. When you do this, the gerund needs a written accent to keep its original stress:
Estoy duchándome. (I'm taking a shower.)
Estamos preparándolo. (We are preparing it.)
What you cannot do is leave the pronoun floating between the two verbs. There is no estoy me duchando in Spanish.
Other verbs that combine with the gerund
Estar is not the only verb that takes a gerund. A few others add useful shades of meaning.
Seguir and continuar + gerund mean to keep doing something or to still be doing it:
Sigo trabajando en la misma empresa. (I'm still working at the same company.)
Continuaron hablando hasta las dos de la mañana. (They kept talking until two in the morning.)
Llevar + time + gerund expresses how long an activity has been going on. It's the Spanish alternative to the English present perfect progressive:
Llevo tres años estudiando español. (I've been studying Spanish for three years.)
Llevamos una hora esperando el autobús. (We've been waiting for the bus for an hour.)
Andar + gerund suggests that someone goes around doing something, often with a hint of disapproval:
Mi vecino anda diciendo mentiras sobre mí. (My neighbor is going around telling lies about me.)
Quick recap
To talk about what's happening right now, conjugate estar and add a gerund: -ando for -ar verbs, -iendo for -er and -ir verbs. Watch out for the -yendo spelling group and for -ir stem changers like pidiendo and durmiendo. Use it for actions in progress, never for future plans, and remember that when -ing acts as a noun in English, Spanish wants the infinitive. If you keep those three contrasts straight, you'll be using this tense like a native in no time. RAE's dictionary entries for estar and seguir are good references for the many other uses of these two verbs.