"The woman is working quickly."

Translation: La virino laboras rapide.

[JonGirod]

why is "estas" not used in place of the "is"?

[JoelMacha]

Because laboras works as both "is working" and "works" in most cases. In simple grammar cases like this, just laboras is fine. There is another way to write this sentence using estas, but that is a later lesson. Google Esperanto verb tenses for more.

[Spongebobfan02]

Because putting the word estas(is) doesn't make sence

[eflorezpty]

How do you tell the difference between "works" and "is working" if we use the same "laboras" for both verb forms?

[NatanAH311]

You don't, you understand it by context

[dmitriy-kalmykov]

How do you distinguish between english homophones in oral speech? By situation, by context, etc. It is (almost) always clear in itself. Many languages don't have "12 time forms". There is only the future, only the present and only the past.

[tedhascoldpants]

Angry grumbling
I always forget the definite article...

[salivanto]

Several people asked about the simple present tense in Esperanto and how it compares to English.

• why is "estas" not used in place of the "is"?
• How do you tell the difference between "works" and "is working" if we use the same "laboras" for both verb forms?
• why do i have it wrong if i put: "la virino ESTAS laboras rapide" if estas = is ???

I've written a detailed answer to these question here:

https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/35325398/Simple-present-tense-in-Esperanto

[Zai630353]

why do i have it wrong if i put: "la virino ESTAS laboras rapide" if estas = is ???

[WeiDong11]

This isn't english. There isn't Present Continuous. This sentence means "The woman is works fast"

[IgneousGeologist]

Thanks for clearing that up. It was confusing me.