What this is about
How to say something is happening RIGHT NOW: estar + gerund. The gerund is the -ing form, and Brazilian Portuguese adores it (European Portuguese uses a different trick — one more reason you're learning the Brazilian way). If you can conjugate estar, this tense is free.
Making the gerund — three endings, zero exceptions
| -AR → -ando | falar → falando · trabalhar → trabalhando |
| -ER → -endo | comer → comendo · fazer → fazendo |
| -IR → -indo | abrir → abrindo · dormir → dormindo |
In action
| Estou trabalhando agora. | I'm working right now |
| Ela está dormindo. | she's sleeping |
| Estamos comendo — liga depois! | we're eating — call later! |
| O que você está fazendo? | what are you doing? — top-10 sentence in the language |
Simple present vs continuous — pick the right one
| Eu trabalho em casa. | habit/fact: I work from home |
| Eu estou trabalhando em casa (hoje). | right now / these days |
Exceptions & details
1 · Also after other verbs: continuar estudando (keep studying), ficar olhando (keep looking) — the gerund is a workhorse.
2 · The clipped estar shows up here constantly: Tô trabalhando!
3 · European Portuguese says estou a trabalhar — understand it if you meet it; never produce it in Brazil.
Practise this chapter
3 pool questions plus generated ones — 20 fresh practice questions, reshuffled every visit, inside the grammar library.
Practise Present continuous: estar + gerund — 20 questions →This chapter is taught in Lição 8 of the course — free, no account needed. Rumo is a complete Brazilian Portuguese course, A1 to B2; level A1 is free.