Explain how to form the Spanish present progressive tense. How is the present progressive tense different from the present tense?
To form the present progressive tense in Spanish, you must first conjugate the verb estar (to be) in the present tense. Then, you must add the gerund form of the main verb, which is formed by adding the suffix -ando to AR verbs or -iendo to ER/IR verbs.
For example, to say "I am eating" in Spanish, you would say "estoy comiendo" where "estoy" is the conjugated form of estar and "comiendo" is the gerund form of the verb comer.
The present progressive tense is different from the present tense in that the present progressive tense is used to talk about actions that are currently happening at the moment of speaking, while the present tense is used to talk about habitual actions or general truths. For example, "I eat breakfast every morning" would be in the present tense, while "I am eating breakfast right now" would be in the present progressive tense.