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Spanish - present and present progressive | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages |  | |
| kaizen Groupie Canada Joined 4902 days ago 48 posts - 52 votes  Studies: French | Message 1 of 5 06 March 2015 at 7:11pm | IP Logged |
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I'd appreciate some clarification on the difference in nuance between the present and present progressive. I'm not looking for highly grammatical explanations for every possible situation - I'm just looking for the general difference for most of the time.
So for example, Como fresas. Estoy comiendo fresas. and Mi hermana y yo buscamos nuestras llaves. Mi hermana y yo estamos buscando nuestras llaves. I realize that the first sentence in each pair can also mean to do something regularly/as a habit. So, "Como fresas." can also mean, "I eat strawberries." But if, "Como fresas." is being used specifically to mean, "I'm eating strawberries now." is there any difference in connotation from, "Estoy comiendo fresas." or are they interchangeable? Thanks 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Juаn Senior Member Colombia Joined 5290 days ago 727 posts - 1830 votes Speaks: Spanish* | Message 2 of 5 06 March 2015 at 9:49pm | IP Logged |
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The distinction between the two tenses in the example sentences is essentially the same as in English.
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| Medulin Tetraglot Senior Member Croatia Joined 4613 days ago 1199 posts - 2192 votes Speaks: Croatian*, English, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Norwegian, Hindi, Nepali | Message 3 of 5 06 March 2015 at 10:22pm | IP Logged |
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''Peninsular informants said -está lloviendo- on seeing rain through the window, and thought that -llueve-, in this case, sounded vaguely poetic or archaic''.
A New Reference Grammar of Spoken Spanish. John Butt & Carmen Benjamin 4th edition Edited by Medulin on 06 March 2015 at 10:22pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| outcast Bilingual Heptaglot Senior Member China Joined 4894 days ago 869 posts - 1364 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English*, German, Italian, French, Portuguese, Mandarin Studies: Korean | Message 4 of 5 08 March 2015 at 6:31am | IP Logged |
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In the area where I learned Spanish, the present progressive is used in casual situations (which is almost all the time), while the present is used in formal occasions, when one means to use these tenses to imply a present action (and not a "condition or state", like the OP mentioned above).
The reason is mainly that the present sounds a bit curt or laconic, and thus somewhat cold. The present progressive sound warmer and more colloquial. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5320 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 5 of 5 08 March 2015 at 12:58pm | IP Logged |
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One distinction is that in Spanish the "como fresas" construction can refer to the action in the future when the "estoy comiendo fresas" can never mean anything other than "in this very instant I am speaking." Edited by James29 on 08 March 2015 at 12:59pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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