Review of Present Progressive: The present progressive is a present tense which is in progress. Students tend to think of it as the " I-N-G" formation since it translates as ING. For example, You ARE READING. The action in the present progressive is continuing and is taking place right now. Formation: In Spanish we combine the verb ESTAR (Estoy, estás, está, estamos, estáis, están) with the present participle (gerund) of the action verb. You get the present participle by dropping the AR, ER, or IR and adding ANDO for AR verbs and IENDO for ER/IR verbs. For the majority of verbs you form the participle directly from the infinitive. Examples of present participles are HABLANDO, COMIENDO and ESCRIBIENDO. HOWEVER-Double stem change verbs are a bit different. First of all, if you do not know what I mean by a stem change verb, go back to earlier explanations. Secondly, you can recognize double stem change verbs in certain dictionaries or texts by the way they are listed. For example, if you search "dormir" it will probably have (ue, u) listed beside it. The "UE" lets the student know that this is an O-UE stem change verb. The "U" that follows allows the student to know that in certain tenses, the U replaces the O from the infinitive. The present progressive is one of those tenses. In other words, if you are forming the present progressive with a double stem change verb, do not rely on the infinitive. Drop the AR,ER,IR as always, then replace the vowel in the stem with the second one provided in the listing. The majority of these cases are in IR I-stem verbs such as pedir(i,i), repetir (i,i,), and sentir (ie,i). Last thing on present progressives: Keep in mind that in general Spanish tends to avoid three vowels together unless one is accented. So, in cases like Leer, Traer, and Creer once you drop the ER and add IENDO, there will be three vowels side by side. Change the I to a Y. The present participle for these verbs is LEYENDO, TRAYENDO and CREYENDO. In the exercise that follows, provide the correct present participle to complete the formation of the present progressive.