Email
	Password
	Membership?	Forgotten Passowrd?

PDF Lessons / Word Drills
	Download   For Free

	Verb Tenses
			An introduction to verbs & personal pronouns
			Verbs - Ser (to be) Estar (to be)
			The present simple tense - regular verbs (I am)
			The present simple tense - irregular verbs (I am)
			The past simple tense - regular verbs (I was)
			The past simple tense - irregular verbs (I was)
			The imperfect tense - all verbs (I used to)
			The future tense - all verbs (I will be)
			The continuous tenses (I am going)
			The perfect tenses - regular and irregular verbs
			The conditional tense - regular and irregular verbs
			The present subjunctive tense
			The past subjunctive tense (If I were to)
			The infinitive tense (verbs in their original forms - to be)
			The imperative tense (command verbs - go / stay etc)
			'Haber' with the conditional and past subjunctive tenses
	More About Verbs
			Reflexive verbs - Part 1
			Reflexive verbs - Part 2
			The 'Gerund' (the equivalent of forming 'ing...' verbs)
			'Gustar' and similar verbs - A different way of using verbs
	All About Articles
			Articles - definite / indefinite ('the' and 'a' in English)
	All About Nouns
			Nouns - Part 1 - (Masculine or feminine?)
			Nouns - Part 2 - (Gender and forming plural nouns)
	All About Adjectives
			Adjectives - (Agreement and word order)
			Adjectives - (Comparative and superlative)
	All About Pronouns
			Pronouns - object pronouns (direct / indirect)
	Adjectives & Pronouns
			Adjectives and Pronouns (demonstrative)
			Adjectives and Pronouns (possessive)
			Adjectives and pronouns (indefinite)
	All About Adverbs
			Adverbs - Part 1 - (words ending in -ly in English)
			Adverbs - Part 2 - (Other forms / making comparisons)
	Prepositions
			An introduction to prepositions and relative pronouns
			Prepositions - A comprehensive list with examples
	Conjunctions
			Conjunctions - linking words
	Questions & Negatives
			Questions and negatives (question words)

   

Affiliates

ROCKET SPANISH

ROSETTA STONE

PART1

 

The first part of this lesson looks at what the ‘gerund’ is and how it is used in both Spanish and English to form continuous tenses.

 

The ‘gerund’ in Spanish is the term given to a verb form whose ending either ends in ‘iendo’ or ‘ando’. (Some irregular ER and IR verbs end in yendo or endo.) In English the equivalent are verbs that end in ‘ing’. Much more information about how ‘gerunds’ are used and formed with verbs is given in a separate lesson.

 

To form continuous tenses the ‘gerund’ form of a verb is usually used with the verb ‘estar’ (to be). Here are some examples.

Estoy preguntando	I'm asking
Estuvimos escogiendo	We were choosing
Estarán viniendo	They will be coming

 

The formation of the ‘gerund’ depends on whether a verb is regular or irregular. Many verbs that are formed with the ‘gerund’ are regular. See the separate lesson on the ‘gerund’ to see which common verbs are irregular. To illustrate how the ‘gerund’ is used to form continuous tenses, in this lesson we will look at only regular verbs.

 

Regular verbs are formed as follows:

 

AR verbs - take off the AR ending and add - ando

 

caminar (to walk) camin = caminando

terminar (to finish) termin = terminando

 

ER verbs - take off the ER ending and add - iendo

IR verbs - take off the IR ending and add - iendo

 

comer (to eat) com = comiendo

aprender (to learn) aprend = aprendiendo

 

salir (to leave) sal = saliendo

escupir (to spit) escup = escupiendo

 

To form a continuous tense with ‘gerunds’ the verb ‘estar’ needs to be placed directly in front of the verb + gerund.

CONTINUOUS TENSE = ESTAR + GERUND VERB FORMATION

 

The verb + gerund part of the continuous tense never changes. It is the verb ‘estar’ that changes. The way ‘estar’ is used ultimately dictates which continuous tense is being formed. The following illustrates how the verb estar is used with the verb caminar (to walk) to formulate the present continuous tense.

 

(Yo) estoy caminando = present continuous tense

(I am walking)

 

PART 2

 

Part 2 of the lesson looks at how the verb ‘estar’ can be used to form different types of continuous tenses. Different continuous tenses can be formed by simply changing the tense of the verb ‘estar’. By this logic you can see that in reality it would be possible to form many different forms of continuous tenses. The following list shows some of the various possibilities that exist. In each example the verb caminar (to walk), has been used with the personal pronoun yo (I).

(Yo) estoy caminando.	present simple continuous tense
(I am walking.)
(Yo) estuve caminando.	past simple continuous tense
(I was walking.)
Yo estaba caminando.	imperfect continuous tense
(I was walking.)
(Yo) estaré caminando.	future continuous tense
(I will be walking.)
(Yo) he estado caminando.	present perfect continuous tense
(I have been walking.)
Yo había estado caminando.	past perfect continuous tense
(I had been walking.)
(Yo) habré estado caminando.	future perfect continuous tense
(I will have been walking.)
Él quiere que yo esté caminando.	present subjunctive continuous tense.
(He wants me to be walking.)
Él quiso que yo estuviera caminando.	past subjunctive continuous tense.
(He wanted me to be walking.)
Yo debería estar caminando.	conditional continuous tense (should)
(I should be walking.)
Yo podría estar caminando.	conditional continuous tense (could)
(I could be walking.)
Yo estaría caminando.	conditional continuous tense (would).
(I would be walking.)
(Yo) voy a estar caminando	future continuous tense with 'ir'
(I’m going to be walking)
Yo iba estar caminando	past continuous tense with 'ir'
(I was going to be walking)

 

Things to note:

 

1)      The formation of the verb caminar (to walk), does not change.

2)      The verb estar changes with each tense.

 

In reality many of the above continuous tenses may seldom be used, or at least not very often in every day speech. It is important to know however, how to formulate continuous tense should the necessity arise.

 

PART 3

 

Part three of the lesson looks at when the continuous tenses are commonly used in everyday speech.

 

Present continuous tense

 

This tense is used to talk about things that are happening at the very moment at which we are speaking.

 

Él está viniendo. - He’s coming (right now).

Está quemando. - It’s burning (right now).

Ella está corriendo. - She’s running (right now).

 

Note: If we want to talk about things which are happening in general or which are not actually happening at this very moment the present simple tense is often used instead of the present continuous tense.

 

Siempre crecemos. - We are always growing.

(Yo) estudio teatro. - I’m studying drama.

 

The present continuous tense can also be used to talk about the future in the same way that the present simple tense can.

 

Estoy trabajando mañana. - I’m working tomorrow.

Están llegando a las siete. - They’re arriving at seven.

 

Past continuous tense

 

This tense can often be used instead of using the imperfect tense in Spanish. For more information on the imperfect tense see the separate lesson on the ‘imperfect’ tense. The translation in English in these situations is the same.

 

Yo caminaba por la calle cuando sucedió.

(Imperfect tense.)

I was walking down the street when it happened.

 

Yo estaba caminando por la calle cuando sucedió.

(Imperfect continuous tense.)

I was walking down the street when it happened.

 

In many other situations the formation of continuous tenses are used logically in speech. Often they are formed simply when we want to describe something that is, was, will be, or might be happening over a period of time.

 

PART 4

 

The final part of this lesson looks at when the continuous tenses might be used in more complex sentences using ‘haber’ (to have). As always the verb ‘estar’ is used to form the continuous tenses. To understand more about how the verb ‘haber’ is used to form different tenses take a look at the lessons on the ‘perfect’ tenses and ‘haber’ with the conditional and subjunctive tenses.

 

The important thing to remember here is that the verb ‘haber’ is always placed before the verb ‘estar’.

 

(verb) + haber + estar + gerund

 

There are many ways in which haber can be used to form continuous tenses. Here are a two examples using the verb ‘escuchar’ (to listen).

 

(Tú) habrías estado escuchando.

(You would have been listening.)

 

(Tú) deberías haber estado escuchando.

(You should have been listening.)

 

That concludes this lesson on the continuous tenses. If you have not done so already watch the actual video for this lesson and then try one of the associated quizzes to test your understanding.

Teach English in Latin America and Learn Spanish at the Same Time

Feel like adding a bit of spark to your life and broadening your horizons? Why not consider teaching English in Latin America and learning Spanish at the same time? There are multitudes of locations all around Latin America that offer programs where you can teach English to locals while becoming a Spanish speaker. If you [...]

June 17, 2013  Comments: 0
Read more >>

How is Latin American Spanish Different?

There is a far bigger difference between the Spanish that is spoken in Spain and Latin American Spanish than exists between British and American English. The Spanish from Spain has some very different grammar, vocabulary and slang to that which is spoken in Latin America. Latin Americans differentiate the Spanish they speak by calling it [...]

June 15, 2013  Comments: 0
Read more >>

Learning Spanish – Mental Preparation

In the last article; ‘Anybody can learn Spanish’ I talked about the different reasons why people might decide to learn Spanish. I also talked about the great sense of achievement that learning another language can bring you. In this article I am going to talk about the different things you should consider before embarking on [...]

June 3, 2013  Comments: 0
Read more >>

A Guide to Learning Spanish – Part 1

Spanishexperto – A guide to learning Spanish – Part 1 Anybody can learn a new language There are many reasons why someone might want to learn Spanish. Perhaps you are planning a holiday or business trip to a Spanish speaking country or maybe you are thinking of emigrating. It could be that you don’t really [...]

June 2, 2013  Comments: 0
Read more >>

The Origins of Spanishexperto

If you are interested in learning the Spanish language then this is for you. Hi, my name is Nick and amongst other things, I spend a lot of my time supporting a new online learning solution for the Spanish language; Spanishexperto.com. The team at Spanishexperto have created a study program that gives the student everything [...]

May 31, 2013  Comments: 0
Read more >>