Nook’s Notes: CE Spanish III — The Present Progressive Tense (3/7)

I like reading, but reading non-fiction can be a struggle for me to retain. So, I will be treating my reading as if it were classwork by taking and sharing notes. Want to join me?

Image of a white woman with a dyed blonde bob wearing an orange blazer, pointing at a whiteboard with a blue dry-erase marker where text reads “Present Continuous / Progressive Tense.”

A year after Medical Spanish I, I am now enrolled in two short, sequential Spanish courses for this Spring: Conversational (CE) Spanish II and Spanish III classes through ACC’s Continuing Education department. It has been a year since my last class, in which time I have been using Duolingo and (more recently) Mango Languages through the Austin Public Library (APL). But of course, I am still not fluent, so here we go again! We used the textbook “Advanced Spanish: Step-by-Step — Master Accelerated Grammar to Take Your Spanish to the Next Level” (p.54–73) by Barbara Bregstein, should you wish to follow along as well. Finally, apologies in advance for the lack of accents and appropriate punctuation in my notes.

Review

Ser — DOCTOR

• Date
• Occupation
• Characteristic
• Time
• Origin
• Relation

Estar — PLACE

• Position
• Location
• Action
• Condition
• Emotion

PRETERITE

Ser

• fui, fuiste, fue
• fuimos, fueron

Estar

• estuve, estuviste, estuvo
• estuvimos, estuvieron

Regular Verbs in the Preterite

-AR

• -e, -aste, -o
• -amos, -aron

-ER/-IR

• -i, -iste, -io
• -imos, -ieron

Irregular Verbs in the Preterite

1. Verbs that end in -car, -gar, -zar have a spelling change in the “yo” form of the Preterite (all other forms are regular) -car e.g., buscar > busc- + -qu- > yo busque -gar e.g., llegar > lleg- + -gu- > yo llegue -zar e.g., empezar > empez- + -c- > yo empece
2. Caer, creer, leer, and oir change “i” to “y” in 3rd-person forms (usted, el, ella & ustedes, ellos, ellas) of the Preterite (in all other forms the “i” requires a written accent)
3. Stem-changing -ir verbs also have a stem change in the 3rd-person forms of the Preterite (stem-changing -ar and -er verbs do not have a stem change in the Preterite) Pedir: pedi, pediste, pidio | pedimos, pidieron Dormir: dormi, dormiste, durmio | dormimos, durmieron
4. U-, I-, and J-Stems (-o, instead of -io for the el, ella, usted form) U-Stem

• Andar > anduv-
• Estar > estuv-
• Poder > pud-
• Poner > pus
• Saber > sup-
• Tener > tuv- I-Stem
• Hacer > hic- *hizo (el, ella, Usted form)
• Querer > quis-
• Venir > vin- J-Stem *-jeron NOT “-ieron” (ellos, ellas, Ustedes form)
• Conducir > conduj-
• Decir > dij-
• Traer > traj-

IMPERFECT

Ser

• era, eras, era
• eramos, eran

Estar

• estaba, estabas, estaba
• estabamos, estaban

Regular Verbs in the Imperfect

-AR

• -aba, -abas, -aba
• -abamos, -aban

-ER/-IR

• -ia, -ias, -ia
• -iamos, -ian

Irregular Verbs

Ir

• iba, ibas, iba
• ibamos, iban

Ver

• veia, veias, veia
• veiamos, veian

*Ser

The Present Progressive Tense

Actions that are in progress / occurring in the moment / happening now, -ing AND habits BUT NEVER to express something in the future (e.g., I am working tomorrow INSTEAD ir + a + infinitive)

Estar + the Present Progressive tense

• estoy, estas, esta
• estamos, estan

• -ar = -ando e.g., hablar > hablando
• -er/-ir = -iendo e.g., comer > comiendo

Irregulars

Change E to I

• Decir > diciendo
• Mentir > mintiendo
• Pedir > pidiendo
• Reir > riendo
• Repetir > repitiendo
• Servir > sirviendo
• Sentir > sintiendo
• Vestir > vistiendo

Change O to U

• Dormir > durmiendo
• Morir > muriendo

Change “yendo”

• Creer > creyendo
• Caer > cayendo
• Construir > construyendo
• Huir > huyendo
• Ir > yendo
• Leer > leyendo
• Oir > oyendo
• Traer > trayendo

With Reflexive Verbs

Option 1

• Me estoy duchando
• Tes estas duchando
• Se esta duchando
• Nos estamos duchando
• Se estan duchando

Option 2 (teacher’s preference)

• Estoy duchandome
• Estas duchandote
• Esta duchandose
• Estamos duchandonos
• Estan duchandose

After a Preposition

Use the infinitive form of the verb

• Antes de comer
• Despues de cocinar
• Al entrar
• Hablamos sin pensar
• En vez de leer
• A pesar de despertarme

Homework

Homework: 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, 3.5 Answer key: p.337–338

3.2 (p.61)

Use the present progressive.

1. NOT esta corregiendo Nuestro profesor esta corrigiendo muchos examenes.

✏️ Corregir is an e to i change in “corrijo” (but not the g to j, not because of sound but the grammar)

10. NOT estas hablando Quienes estan hablando por telefono?

✏️ Because “quien” is plural, so too should “estar” be

3.3 (p.62)

Using the verb word bank, conjugate either with the infinitive, present indicative, or present progressive as appropriate.

2. NOT haciendo Quien sabe nadar?

✏️ Present indicative NOT present progressive ✏️ To know VS to make / to do

4. NOT sabiendo Antes de conocer a los padres de su novio, Amalia se maquilla la cara.

✏️ After a preposition, so an infinitive ✏️ Conocer not Saber (both “to know” but talking about a meeting NOT knowledge)

3.4 (p.65)

Use the present progressive

2. NOT estan sigiendo Los adolescentes no estan siguiendo las direcciones.

✏️ Seguir (g sound) is unlike Corregir (j sound), “gi” sounds like “j” (if you want the “g” sound, you need the “u”)

4. NOT estan hiciendo Quienes estan haciendo tanto ruido?

✏️ From “hacer” (“hicieron” would be past tense)

5. NOT estan aluerzando Los amigos de Juan estan almorzando en casa hoy.

✏️ Almorzar is irregular, O changes to UE (ONLY the nostoros form keeps its normal spelling)

3.5 (p.66)

Translate using the present progressive.

1. NOT Estan hablando las mujeres a los hombres? Les estan hablando las mujeres a los hombres?

✏️ “les” because of Direct and Indirect Object Pronouns, to them (here it is the indirect)

2. NOT Que estas diciendo a mi? Que me estas diciendo?

✏️ Same topic, D.O. and I.O. pronouns

✏️ Because verb conjugation would have to be different

3. NOT Puedes estar repitiendo la pregunta? Los estudiantes no estan tiniendo atencion a ti. Puedes repetir la pregunta? Los estudiantes no te estan prestando atencion.

✏️ I.O. and D.O. again

4. NOT Conocimos que el esta buscando para una idea. El la necesita a esta escribiendo una historia. Sabemos que el esta buscando una idea. La necesita para escribir un cuento.

✏️ Saber for knowledge (an idea is something in your mind)

✏️ Preposition “para” to indicate purpose

6. NOT La abogada fantastica esta sonando de un viaje a Italia. La abogada fantastica esta sonando con un viaje a Italia.

✏️ Con means with, de means of (but not working because means here it belongs to the lawyer)