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Hi, I'm a little confused here in the grammar sections on direct objects, it states that:

The direct object comes BEFORE the verb
Yet in the example it says:
Los estoy comprando.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the verb COMPRANDO? Doesn't that express action? Why isn't it: Estoy los comprando.

Same thing with the indirect object pronouns it states that:

Unlike in English, the indirect object pronouns go DIRECTLY before the verb.
One of the examples given is:

Lupe nos está hablando

Why does 'nos' come before 'esta' and not DIRECTLY before 'hablando?' Doesn't hablando express action? Why isn't it: Lupe esta nos hablando

For both direct and indirect object pronouns, isn't it misleading to say that it goes DIRECTLY before the verb. If I'm mistaken as to what the verb is then please inform me.

Jay wrote:Hi, I'm a little confused here in the grammar sections on direct objects, it states that:

The direct object comes BEFORE the verb
Yet in the example it says:
Los estoy comprando.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the verb COMPRANDO? Doesn't that express action? Why isn't it: Estoy los comprando.

The verb is estoy comprando. In fact, strictly speaking, the real verb is estoy; comprando is a present participle. Thus, the direct and indirect objects precede estoy, not comprando.

There's a book I've seen mentioned elsewhere called English Grammar for Students of Spanish by Emily Spinelli. I've never used the book, but I looked just now at the table of contents and the index (Amazon.com has a "look inside the book" feature), and it looks as if it may be useful. It does include discussion of past and present participles. You may want to take a look. I'm not recommending it, since I've never read or used it, but you may find it helpful.

Gracias