Actions in progress in Brazilian Portuguese

Level A2

Actions in progress in Brazilian Portuguese

Describe a shared workspace at this moment: one person is eating, another is reading, and others are working. Use a form of estar plus the action ending in -ndo. The form of estar changes with the person; the action word stays the same.

Location, routine, and this moment

Here is a short review: Estou aqui means “I am here”; Trabalho aqui means “I work here.” Aqui is “here”, and trabalhar is “to work”. The first gives your location; the second can describe your usual workplace. Now you will describe an action in progress, rather than just say where someone is or works.

People and three actions

Eu is “I”, você is “you” for one person, ela is “she”, and eles is “they” for a male or mixed group; an all-female group is elas. Comer means “to eat”, ler means “to read”, and agora means “now”. Here estar works as an auxiliary before the action, rather than giving a location by itself. Listen to the cards; then use the short forms shown in the following examples.

Change estar with the person

For an action happening now, use estou with eu, está with você or ela, and estão with eles or elas: Estou trabalhando agora means “I am working now”. Trabalhando means “working”; compare trabalhar → trabalhando. Ela está trabalhando agora is “She is working now”, and Eles estão trabalhando agora is “They are working now”. The action word trabalhando stays unchanged. Portuguese can leave out eu when estou already makes the speaker clear; with você, say Você está trabalhando agora, using the same está as with ela.

eu / você / ela / eles estou / está / estão trabalhando / comendo / lendo

Two new action forms

Comer becomes comendo, “eating”, and ler becomes lendo, “reading”: remove the final -r and add -ndo in these two verbs. Eu estou comendo agora means “I am eating now”; Eu estou lendo agora means “I am reading now”. For ela, change estou to está: Ela está comendo agora and Ela está lendo agora. These -ndo forms are called gerúndio in Portuguese; do not replace them with the infinitives comer or ler after estar in this construction. Like English “am reading”, the combination describes the ongoing action, rather than a general habit.

Read a short status message

Imagine that the speaker is at a table, Ana is reading nearby, and two colleagues are working. The three sentences below form one short message about the scene: “I am eating now. She is reading now. They are working now.” Read or listen once, then identify who is eating, who is reading and who is working without translating each word. Ela refers to Ana; eles refers to the two colleagues.

Recognize tô and tá

In everyday informal speech, estou is often reduced to tô, and está to tá. Tô trabalhando agora and Ela tá trabalhando agora have the same meanings as their full-form models. These two audio lines are for recognition only; practise producing estou and está here. The examples describe actions in progress now; they are not service promises about what someone will do later.

Describe a changed scene

Now change the scene: you are reading, Ana is eating, and the two colleagues are working. Before revealing the models, say a three-sentence message in Portuguese using only the words already shown. Then compare with the three audio examples in order; both Estou lendo agora and Eu estou lendo agora identify you as the reader. Finally look at another familiar scene and replace one action with a suitable one from this lesson. Keep this pattern: person + estou/está/estão + trabalhando/comendo/lendo, with agora when you want to say “now”.

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