Right now: estou falando

The gerund: forming it

The gerund follows a pattern just as short as the participle's, and it has almost no exceptions worth naming at this level:

The gerund's main job is describing an action in progress, almost always alongside estar:

Ela está comendo agora. - She is eating right now.

Eles estão vendendo a casa. - They are selling the house.

Eu estava falando com ele quando você ligou. - I was talking to him when you called.

This is the Portuguese equivalent of the English -ing form after to be, and it is genuinely close in meaning: estou falando and I am speaking line up almost word for word.

The regional split: estar falando against estar a falar

Here is the one point where Brazilian and European Portuguese visibly diverge on this topic. Brazilian Portuguese uses the gerund with estar as shown above. European Portuguese generally prefers estar a plus the plain infinitive for the same meaning:

Brazilian: Estou falando com ela.

European: Estou a falar com ela.

Both mean exactly the same thing, I am speaking to her, and the gerund form itself, falando, is standard, correct Portuguese in both varieties: European Portuguese simply reaches for it less often in this particular construction. The Pearson Edexcel specification accepts either variety, so recognising both patterns matters more than picking a side.