Present Participle
The present participle is an easy thing to know and remember. Basically, whenever you want to say that you or someone else is doing something, you use the present participle. For example, if you say "I am speaking" in English, then you would say "Estoy hablando" in Spanish. First, you must learn and memorize the conjugation of the verb estar. Estar means "to be." That's not the complete and total truth, but we'll leave it at that. First, here's the conjugation chart for estar.
| Estar |
| Person |
Singular |
Plural
|
| 1st |
estoy |
estamos |
| 2nd |
estás |
| 3rd |
está |
están |
The reason that estar is so important to learn is that it is necessary to express the participle both in the present and the past. In English, you would say, "I am talking." In Spanish, you would say something quite similar. Since the estar means "to be." Its conjugated forms mean "I am," "you are," "he is," and so on. So the way to say I am talking is to use the conjugated form of estar (estoy, in this case) and then slap the participle on the end of the sentence to make it whole. Now the only think you've to learn is how to make the participle. It's very easy. Here's a chart!
