Spanish Speakers... question about the "ing" in spanish?

Question

In english, we say, "I am going to the store." I don't know much spanish, but i would say, "Yo ando a la tienda." That, literally, is "I go to the store." What is the equivalent of "am going"? Would you say, "estoy andamente." ?

Sorry if this is confusing!
Thankyou!

Answer 1

There are 2 ways to say it.

Voy a la tienda means 3 things:

1. I go to the store
2. I do go to the store
3. I am going to the store

It is all basically the same thing, but we can translate it any of those ways.

You can actually add -ING to a word by adding -ando or -iendo to a word. This is not usually taught until Spanish II, or maybe at the end of Spanish I.

-ando and -iendo need a helper verb with it. This is how it goes:

Use estar (estoy, estás, está, estamos, están) and then take the -ar or -er/-ir away from your verb and add the new ending.
This stresses the fact that you are currently in the process of doing this.
To say I am talking:

Estoy hablando

I am eating:

Estoy comiendo

I am writing:

Estoy escribiendo

To say I am going to the store... ir is irregular so you get

Estoy yendo a la tienda.

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

In English, we often use the -ing form to express something that is happening right now:
I'm going to the store. (meaning: I'm currently in the process of traveling to the store.)
In Spanish, even though there is the possibility of describing actions in progress with similar grammar, people do not use the form as much as English speakers do. So the actual sentence that a Spanish speaker would say would be
Yo voy a la tienda.
and that sentence expresses the same amount of in-progress action that the previous English sentence did.

Just FYI, the present progressive in Spanish is formed with "estar" as in your example, and the -ando or -iendo ending (there are a few exceptions in verbs, but in general):
hablar -> estoy hablando
comer -> estoy comiendo

And, by the way, you have translated "go" as "andar" in Spanish, but that's a false translation. Although it's true that "andar" can be translated as "go", it's actually more or less equivalent to the idea of "to go around", such as in "My brother always goes around saying how great he is." So if you want to say "go", I recommend "ir" instead of "andar". (Actually, many dictionaries translate "andar" as "walk", I believe, which is also incorrect.)

Instead of trying to translate literally from the English grammatical structures that you know, just learn how the same idea is expressed in Spanish, even if it is with different grammar. This will make your grammar a lot more natural sounding.

Have a great time learning Spanish!

Answer 3

I would say, "Voy a ir a la tienda." I am going to go to the store. But -ing is -ando or -iendo for the verbs. Like "I am talking" would be "Yo estoy hablando." And you put estar before it.

Answer 4

"Yo ando a la tienda" doesn´t mean a thing.
You should say: "Voy a la tienda".
The equivalent to "am going" is "voy a" just after this an infinitive is expected: (ie) Voy a comer en la cafetería = I´m going to have lunch in the cafeteria.

Answer 5

Hi, I'm a native Spanish speaker.

You should say: "Voy a ir a la tienda".

P.S. You can read about the Spanish gerund conjugation (-ing) here:
http://spanish.about.com/od/verbs/a/english_ing.htm

Answer 6

ando means ?walk?= it should actually be 'yo voy a la tienda.'
'ing' in spanish does not translate, you would not have to add 'mente' on the end.Just put the first person, singular, in present.
yo voy, yo canto (i sing/i am singing), yo ando (i walk/i am walking)...., yo marcho (i leave/i am leaving)
hope this helps.
Cheers, Deanna

Answer 7

Ir is the word in Spanish for the verb to go.
So you would say Voy a la tienda.
look for the verb to go or ir, in a verb dictionary and it will break down how to conjugate the verb

Answer 8

Ire ala tienda.......that's my guess "amigos"

Answer 9

-iendo or -ando, I think