Buying a hat?

Question

¿Estás comprando un sombrero?
Are you buying a hat?
Sí estoy/No, no estoy/ comprando un sombrero.
Yes I am/No, no I am not/ buying a sombrero.

¿Tengo los signos barra en una buena posición y son las buenas traducciones? Gracias. Do I have the slash signs in a good position and are the translations good? Thank you.

In each of your sentences, the 1st slash is fine and the 2nd should not be there. - samdie, Aug 13, 2010

Answer 1

What MacFadden said. If someone asked you

What are you doing this morning? - ¿Qué haces esta mañana?

You might say:
I am buying a hat. - Compro un sombrero.

But if they met you in the store and asked:
What are you doing? - ¿Qué haces?

You might say:
I am buying a hat - Estoy comprando un sombrero.

The present tense is used more often than the progressive in Spanish, unlike English. As MacFadden said, the progressive is used to emphasize that the act is ongoing as we speak.

Excellent clear answer Kevin :) - FELIZ77, Aug 12, 2010

Answer 2

What you have is fine, but it is much more common to use the present tense instead of the present progressive in Spanish, unless one is trying to especially emphasize the "under-way-ness" of the action. I would say "¿Compras un...?" etc. Then again, what you have might be correct, if you were trying to emphasize it. Other than that, everything looks fine,e xcept that you need a comma between "Sí" and "estoy."

Update: Oh, I just noticed one more thing. I think of "No, no estoy comprando..." as best translated "No, I am not..." rather than "No, no[,] I am not..." as you have it.