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Grammar Summary

Spanish-3 Unidad 4 Etapa1

Interrogative Words (Review) 

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The Present Progressive (Review)

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The Present Progressive With ir, andar and seguir

You already know that you use estar + present participle to talk about what is happening right now.  You can also use the verbs ir, andar and seguir instead of estar with the present participle.  Each of these three verbs has a special meaning in progressive constructions:

ir + present participle Anita se va adaptando a su puesto Anita is (slowly but surely) adjusting to her job
andar + present participle Anita anda buscando trabajo Anita is going around looking for work
seguir + present participle Paco sigue buscando trabajo Paco is still looking for work

  The Past Progressive

You use the past progressive to emphasize that an action was in progress at a particular time in the past.  It is usually formed by using:

imperfect form of estar + present participle

¿Qué estabas haciendo a las cinco de la tarde?  Estaba estudiando y haciendo la tarea.

you can also use the past progressive to emphasize that an action continued in the past for a specific period of time until it came to an end.  To form this usse of the past progressive, use:

preterite form of estar + present participle

Yo estuve estudiando toda la tarde.