What is the estar+participio used for?

Question

what do you use the estar plus participio for.what's the purpose of using it?

Answer 1

All the above answers assume that you are talking about estar+present participle to form the continuous (progressive) tense.

Estar is also used with past participle. The past participle functions as an adjective in that construction.

Está cerrado. = it is closed.

Está abierto. = it is open.

Spanish's true passive voice is formed with Ser+past participle, but Estar+past participle is very similar except that the past participle is an adjective and not a verb as in the true passive voice.

Mi casa fue construido por ese carpintero. (construido is a verb)

My house was built by that carpenter.

Estoy confundido. (confundido is an adjective )

I am confused.

Answer 2

Abuelita just asked me if she could use estar with the present participle of estar, to express something like "he is being nice". Él está estando amable. It certainly sounds odd to me.

Someone just asked that in another thread today and the answer was that estar+estando is never used. Estar siendo is. I wish I could rember which thread it was. - 0074b507, Dec 27, 2009

Answer 3

I have also heard it defined as "being in the process of doing something."

Answer 4

estoy leyendo ---> i am reading(this is happening now and has a duration) estoy estudiando------->i am studying

Answer 5

It is called the present progressive tense. It is used to describe something that is happening now. For example... estoy jugando baloncesto means "I am playing basketball." Where the simple present tense means that I play basketball but it does not necessarily mean I am playing now. Now, the progressive does not only work in the present tense. You can change the tense of estar to give it different meanings. Estaba jugando would be "I was playing basketball." Estuvo jugando, and so on. I hope this is helpful.