General NotesPresentImperfectFutureOther
Use progressive tenses in order to emphasize continuity of an action or an event. To form progressive use estar/andar/continuar/pasar (el tiempo)/seguir + present participle, although estar is the most common. Many textbooks don’t even mention the other verbs!
See conjugation of andar, estar, seguir.
For formation of present participle see conjugation of regular, irregular and stem-changing verbs.
Use the present progressive tense – estar + present participle – (only!) when referrring to an action in progress.
| estoy estás está | estamos estáis están | + present participle |
Estoy escribiendo una carta (ahora!).
Use the imperfect progressive when referring to actions in progress in the past. It gives a greater emphasis to the ongoing nature of the action than imperfect. To form it use the imperfect of estar and a present participle.
| estaba estabas estaba | estábamos estabais estaban | + present participle |
Mi novio me estaba besando cuando mi padre abrió la puerta.
One can use the future progressive and the future perfect progressive to make sertain emphasizes although it rarely happens. For example
| Yo veré. | I will look. | Sometime, for sometime. | Simple Future |
| Yo estaré viendo. | I will be looking. | Continued process | Future Progressive |
| Yo habré visto. | I will have looked. | By the time you arrive. | Future Perfect |
| Yo habré estado viendo. | I will have been looking. | Continued process by the time you arrive. | Future Perfect Progressive |
One can also form other progressive tenses to express conitnuity of an action, but in reality they are hardly used. For when they should be used, see the rules for the “paternal” tense. Just for the sake of it, here is what some of them would look like:
| Preterite Progressive (used rather infrequently) | Yo estuve estudiando |
| Conditional Progressive | Yo estarÃa estudiando |
| Present Subjunctive Progressive | Yo quiero que él esté estudiando |
| Imperfect Subjunctuve Progressive | Yo estuviera estudiando |
| Pluperfect Subjunctive Progressive | Yo hubiera estado estudiando |
| Present Perfect Progressive | Yo he estado estudiando |
| Conditional Perfect Prgressive | Yo habrÃa estado estudiando |