Estar + gerund – INGing it!
Also known as the Present Continuous
In Spanish we don’t use ‘……………………ing’ words as much as we do in English – where we would say ‘I am walking’, in Spanish we are just as likely to say ‘I walk’!
It is, however, still useful to know how to form what is known as the ‘Gerund’ or ‘Gerundio’.
First things first though – you need to know the verb ‘Estar’
| ESTOY | I am | ESTAMOS | we are |
| ESTÁS | you are | ESTÁIS | you are (plural) |
| ESTÁ | he/she/it is | ESTÁN | they are |
Forming the gerund is really simple – for regular verbs just drop the AR/ER/IR at the end of the verb and replace it with
ANDO or IENDO as shown:
TRABAJAR– TRABAJANDO
COMER– COMIENDO
ESCRIBIR– ESCRIBIENDO
Once we have learned that it’s also really simple – you just combine ‘estar’ with the ‘gerund’ of the verb.
Using the verbs above, we can say:
I am working – Estoy trabajando
We are eating – Estamos comiendo
She is writing – Está escribiendo
NB. The most important thing to remember is that we only use this if we are actually doING it when we SAY IT!
For instance, you would only say ‘Estoy estudiando español’ if you are actually studyING Spanish at that very moment! If you want to tell some that you are studying Spanish, you just say ‘Estudio español’.
