Preface Use of the Tense Present progressive is a tense used to describe an action that is on-going in the time of its utterance. Grammatical Structure The grammatical structure of the Present Progressive tense is made-up of three parts: The subject pronoun (which can be omitted with the conjugation of the verb), the conjugation of estar in present simple according to the person performing the action (see {link:1188} the conjugation of estar in the Present Simple tense), and the main verb conjugated in the gerundio form. The Present Progressive Structure: Spanish Subject Pronoun + Conjugation of  ‘Estar’ in Present Simple + Gerundio form of main verb             English Subject Pronoun + Conjugation of ‘ To be’ in Present Simple + -ING form of main verb     Conjugation Table of the Present Progressive Tense The verb illustrated in the table is hablar (to speak)   Subject Pronoun ESTAR in Present Simple Gerundio form of main verb English Yo estoy hablando I am speaking Tú estás hablando You are speaking Él/Ella/Ud. está hablando He/she/it/you-formal is speaking Nosotros/as estamos hablando We are speaking Vosotros/as estáis Not used in Latin America Ellos/Ellas/Uds. están hablando They/you-all are speaking   Examples: 1. What are you doing now? ¿Qué estás (tú) haciendo ahora? 2. What are you-all reading (now)? ¿Qué están (uds.) leyendo (ahora)? 3. I am waiting for him now a. (Yo) le estoy esperando b. (Yo) estoy esperándole   When using object pronouns and the gerundio form, the object pronouns can be placed either before or after the verb, as shown in the above example.

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