Present Participles

Spanish present participles are typically used in compound tenses to express continuous or ongoing actions. Present participles end in -ndo, which is the equivalent of the English ending -ing.

To form the present participle of regular verbs, most of the time you just drop the infinitive ending (-ar, -er, -ir) and add -ando to the stem of -ar verbs and -iendo to the stem of -er and -ir verbs.

Check out the regular present participles in the examples below.

Attaching One Pronoun to a Present Participle

When using a direct, indirect, or reflexive pronoun with a present participle in a compound tense, the pronoun can either be attached to the end of the present participle or go before the conjugated verb. The pronoun never goes in between the conjugated verb and the present participle.

For example:

I am taking a shower.

When the present participle is not part of a compound tense, you only have one option: attach the pronoun to the present participle.

For example:

Attaching Two Pronouns to a Present Participle

When working with a present participle and two pronouns, remember the acronym RID (reflexive, indirect, direct) to determine the order. For example, if you have a reflexive pronoun and a direct object pronoun, the reflexive pronoun comes first.

The two pronouns can either be attached to the end of the present participle or go before the conjugated verb. When attaching the pronouns to the end of the participle, you must add an accent to the vowel before the -ndo.

For example: