Look at the sentences:
Elle est en train de faire ses devoirs
She is doing her homework
Je suis en train de prendre ma douche
I'm having my shower
Nous sommes en train de décorer la chambre du bébé en ce moment-même.
We are decorating the baby's room right now.
In French, there is no equivalent tense for the English Continuous Present (I'm doing) .
Le Présent (e.g. "Je vais") is used for both the Present tense ("I go...") and the Present Continuous ("I'm going...")
However, when you really want to emphasise the progression of the action, you can use the expression "être en train de" + infinitive (literally 'to be in the process of')
Also see Être en train de : expressing ongoing actions in the past
Learn more about these related French grammar topics
Examples and resources
Elles sont en train de jouer, mais il commence à pleuvoir
They are playing, but it starts raining
Je suis en train de prendre ma douche
I'm having my shower
Elle est en train de faire ses devoirs
She is doing her homework
Nous sommes en train de décorer la chambre du bébé en ce moment-même.
We are decorating the baby's room right now.
Q&A
David
Kwiziq community member
11 July 2018
1 reply
Is this expression being overused in Kwiziq
This expression keeps coming up in these quiz questions. Usually it is in a choose-one-from-list situation where it is indeed the best choice. But isn't it misleading since many of these cases would normally be adequately translated using Le Present since the emphasis on the continuous nature of the action is not required?
Blake
Kwiziq community member
26/12/18
Also interested in this.
Chris
Kwiziq community member
12/12/17
Translating between languages isn't an exact science and requires knowledge of the context.
From your question I glean that you have understood what the phrase "être en train de...." expresses. Which English translation you choose is now a matter of context and taste. But, to put it succinctly, "Anne is on her way to Paris" is within the bounds of the French original sentence.
-- Chris (not a native speaker).
Aurélie
Kwiziq language super star
13/12/17
Bonjour Lewis !
Actually no: the sentence "Anne est en train d'aller à Paris." doesn't literally mean this.
Of course, as Chris stated, you can always take liberties as a translator, and indeed, even in English, "Anne is going to Paris" and "Anne is on her way to Paris" mean roughly the same thing, but they are still two different sentences :)
In French, the equivalent would be "Anne est en train d'aller à Paris" vs "Anne est en route pour Paris".
I hope that's helpful!
Bonne journée !
Ron
Kwiziq community member
27/04/17
Ron
Kwiziq community member
23/04/17
I hope this helps.
Paola
Kwiziq community member
20 January 2019
1 reply
The use of present doesn't already express the action is happening in the action?
For example, if I say "Elle faire ses devoirs" instead of "Elle est en train de faire ses devoirs", what is the difference? Thank you
Chris
Kwiziq community member
21 January 2019
21/01/19
Elle fait ses devoirs. -- She does her homework. This is a general statement in the present tense. Even though it is in present tense, it has a bit of a "timeless" quality. If you want to express that she is right at it, that very moment, in her room, doing her homework, in English you would use the continuous form: "She is doing her homework." In French there is no continuous form. So if you want to stress that something is happening as you speak, you can use "être en train".
Elle est en train de faire ses devoirs. -- She is doing her homework (right now, as we speak). She is in the process of doing her homework.