A past moment can serve as a snapshot of an action already in progress.

The idea

Use estaba, estabas, estaba, estábamos, estabais or estaban with a gerund. Forms in -ar normally take -ando; those in -er and -ir take -iendo.

Examples

  • Ayer a las ocho estaba preparando la cena.Yesterday at eight I was preparing dinner.
  • Cuando llegué, Marta estaba leyendo en el jardín.When I arrived, Marta was reading in the garden.
  • Los vecinos estaban pintando la puerta esta mañana.The neighbours were painting the door this morning.
  • ¿Estabas esperando el autobús bajo la lluvia?Were you waiting for the bus in the rain?
  • Mientras sonaba la radio, estábamos ordenando la sala.While the radio was playing, we were tidying the room.
  • A medianoche el bebé estaba durmiendo.At midnight the baby was sleeping.

Read-aloud uses a synthetic Spanish voice available on your device. Voice quality and availability vary; it does not assess your pronunciation.

Watch out

Do not use an infinitive after estaba: say estaba hablando, not estaba hablar. Some gerunds are irregular, such as haciendo.

Try it yourself

  1. Complete with the form of estar: Yo ___ escribiendo una carta.

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    estaba

    Estaba agrees with the first-person singular subject.

  2. Complete with the gerund of hacer: Ellos estaban ___ un mapa.

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    haciendo

    Haciendo is the irregular gerund of hacer.

  3. Complete with the form of estar: Nosotros ___ caminando por la playa.

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    estábamos

    Estábamos agrees with the first-person plural subject.

Use it today

Describe what you were doing at a particular time yesterday.