{"id":138386,"date":"2023-09-06T00:54:43","date_gmt":"2023-09-06T04:54:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/learn\/past-progressive-spanish\/"},"modified":"2025-01-29T09:00:57","modified_gmt":"2025-01-29T14:00:57","slug":"past-progressive-spanish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/spanish\/past-progressive-spanish\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Use the Past Progressive in Spanish"},"content":{"rendered":"

The past progressive refers to actions that were taking place at some point in the past.\u00a0For example, in English, you’d say something like “The little girl was talking to her friend on the phone yesterday.”<\/p>\n

Spanish has a similar grammatical concept, which we’ll explore in this post.\u00a0<\/p>\n

[fluentu-toc]<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Past Progressive Pattern<\/h2>\n

Let’s look at a few examples of the past progressive in English and translate them into Spanish.<\/p>\n

What were you doing? \u2192 \u00bfQu\u00e9 estabas haciendo?<\/em><\/p>\n

I was telling her that… \u2192 Estaba dici\u00e9ndole que…<\/em><\/p>\n

She was looking at Sam. \u2192 Ella estaba mirando a Sam.<\/em><\/p>\n

She was crying. \u2192 Ella estaba llorando.<\/em><\/p>\n

Do you notice the\u00a0pattern in the Spanish translations?<\/p>\n

You might be able to spot it even if you’re new to learning Spanish<\/a> and don’t recognize the verb endings yet.<\/p>\n

It may look complicated at first, but the Spanish past progressive is as easy as its English counterpart. The following sections will teach you how to form it, step by step.<\/p>\n

How to Form the Spanish Past Progressive Tense<\/h2>\n

1. Imperfect tense of\u00a0estar<\/em><\/h3>\n

If you’re learning the past progressive tense, you’re probably already familiar with the Spanish present progressive. If not, I recommend you review the present progressive in Spanish<\/a> before you proceed.<\/p>\n

As you know, when forming the Spanish present progressive tense, you have to take the present tense of the verb estar<\/em><\/a> (to be).<\/p>\n

To form the past progressive, you need to conjugate the imperfect tense<\/a> of the same verb according to its corresponding Spanish pronoun<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t
Spanish Pronoun<\/th>Imperfect Tense Conjugations of \"Estar\"<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
yo<\/em> (I)<\/td>estaba<\/em><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
t\u00fa<\/em> (you, informal)<\/td>estabas<\/em><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u00e9l<\/em> (he)
\nella<\/em> (she)
\nusted<\/em> (you, formal)<\/td>		estaba<\/em><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
nosotros<\/em> (we, masculine)
\nnosotras<\/em> (we, feminine)<\/td>		est\u00e1bamos<\/em><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
vosotros<\/em> (you, masculine plural in European Spanish)
\nvosotras<\/em> (you, feminine plural in European Spanish)<\/td>		estabais<\/em><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
ellos<\/em> (they, masculine)
\nellas<\/em> (they, feminine)
\nustedes<\/em> (you, plural)<\/td>		estaban<\/em><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n

The verb estar <\/em>is regular in the imperfect tense, so this should not be difficult to learn.<\/p>\n

2. Gerundio<\/em><\/h3>\n

Next, we need the Spanish gerundio<\/em> (gerund<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Depending on the ending of the infinitive<\/a>, regular verbs can fall into one of two groups: those that end in -ar<\/em> and those that end in -er <\/em>or -ir.<\/em><\/p>\n

Infinitives ending in -ar<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Remove\u00a0-ar<\/em>\u00a0and add -ando:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t
-ar<\/em> Verb<\/th>Gerundio<\/em><\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
cantar<\/em>\u00a0(to sing)<\/td>cantando<\/strong><\/em> (singing)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
tocar<\/em>\u00a0(to touch)<\/td>tocando<\/strong><\/em> (touching)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
llamar<\/em>\u00a0(to call)<\/td>llamando<\/strong><\/em> (calling)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
estudiar<\/em> (to learn)<\/td>estudiando<\/strong><\/em> (learning)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n

Infinitives ending in -er <\/em>and -ir<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Remove\u00a0-er<\/em>\u00a0or\u00a0-ir<\/em>\u00a0and add -iendo:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t
-er<\/em> and -ir<\/em> Verbs<\/th>Gerundio<\/em><\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
comer<\/em> (to eat)<\/td>comiendo<\/strong><\/em> (eating)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
perder<\/em> (to lose)<\/td>perdiendo<\/strong><\/em> (losing)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
vivir<\/em>\u00a0(to live)<\/td>viviendo<\/strong><\/em> (living)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
resistir<\/em>\u00a0(to resist)<\/td>resistiendo<\/strong><\/em> (resisting)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n

As for irregular verbs, it would be outside the scope of this post to include all the possible irregularities and infinitives. You can find a long list of irregular gerundios <\/em>at Learn a Language<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Here are just a few of the most common irregulars<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t
Spanish Irregular Verb<\/th>Gerundio<\/em><\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
leer<\/em>\u00a0(to read)<\/td>leyendo<\/em> (reading)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
caer<\/em>\u00a0(to fall)<\/td>cayendo<\/em> (falling)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
ir<\/em>\u00a0(to go)<\/td>yendo<\/em> (going)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
dormir<\/em>\u00a0(to sleep)<\/td>durmiendo<\/em> (sleeping)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
decir<\/em> (to say)<\/td>diciendo<\/em> (saying)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
mentir<\/em>\u00a0(to lie)<\/td>mintiendo<\/em> (lying)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n

3. The past progressive: estar <\/em>+ gerundio<\/em><\/h3>\n

Now that we know how to get the different components of the past progressive, the only thing we have to do is put them together and make sentences.<\/p>\n

Have a look at some examples:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t
Spanish Past Progressive in Sentences<\/th>English Translation<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
Mi hermana estaba cocinando<\/strong> mientras yo estaba planchando<\/strong>.<\/em><\/td>My sister was cooking<\/strong> while I was ironing<\/strong>.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
El perro estaba ladrando<\/strong> cuando llegu\u00e9.<\/em><\/td>The dog was barking<\/strong> when I arrived.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Recuerdo que el tel\u00e9fono estaba sonando<\/strong>.<\/em><\/td>I remember the phone was ringing<\/strong>.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Ayer a las dos est\u00e1bamos almorzando<\/strong>.<\/em><\/td>We were having lunch<\/strong> yesterday at 2 p.m.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n

Easy! As you can see, the English and the Spanish past progressive tenses are quite similar.<\/p>\n

To better understand this tense, you can hear native speakers use it in authentic Spanish videos with interactive subtitles on the FluentU<\/a> language learning program.

FluentU<\/strong> takes authentic videos\u2014like music videos, movie trailers, news and inspiring talks\u2014and turns them into personalized language learning lessons.<\/p>\r\n

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