Estar+gerundio VS simple present

[Luna Azul]

Originally Posted by Laurien

This is confusing for me:

You use estar+gerundio when you talk about things that happen at the moment when you are speaking and for "presentamos como no definitivas o temporales".

Yet since the gerundio doesn't exist in my language, it confuses me.

If i say "I'm browsing a site." that's something i'm doing now. So according to the theorie i should use estar+gerundio. But i would just say it in simple present?

I've looked at many different sites but i can't find one thats explains it clearly.

So can someone help me understand when i should just use presente de indicativo and when estar+gerundio ?

Thank you in advance.

I'll try to answer this question in a way that I won't make it more confusing for you (I hope)

Estar + gerundio. It's the construction native Spanish speakers normally use when we want to express an action that is happening at the time that we are speaking. [ Even though this isn't exactly true when estar is used in other verb tenses. But that's another story]

Estoy comiendo
María está llorando
etc....

I said "normally" because this not the only way we say those things. We actually can use the present tense :

(yo) estoy comiendo = (yo) como
María está llorando = Maria llora

Both sets of sentences mean the same thing

-¿Qué haces? (what are you doing?)
-Escribo una carta (I'm writing a letter)
These sentences mean exactly the same as ¿Qué estás haciendo? - Estoy escribiendo una carta.

However, the present tense is used for other actions and that can be confusing.

Yo como arroz - It doesn't necessarily means that I am eating rice now. I just eat rice, it's something that I eat as opposed to let's say, potatoes.

Yo como arroz pero no como papas.

If you say yo estoy comiendo arroz pero no estoy comiendo papas the meaning is different.

The present is also used as future:

-¿Cuándo viajan ellos?
- Ellos viajan mañana..
This is totally different to "ellos están viajando".

All these differences may be the reason why we prefer to use estar + gerund. It's the normal way of speaking. And even though using the present tense in these cases -when there's no confusion- is correct, I would try to avoid it.

You must know about it if you want to master the language, but don't use it.. just leave it a little aside but don't forget about it.. just in case.

I hope I helped.

[laepelba]

Just to belabor this point a little bit ... I have been told (I think it was here in the forums) that native English speakers who are learning Spanish tend to overuse "estar + gerundio" because we use that construction more in English than it is used in Spanish. For example, I might be sitting at dinner with some of my math teacher colleagues and say to them "I am learning to speak Spanish." But it is my understanding (please, someone correct me if I am wrong), that if I am presently eating dinner and speaking Spanish with some colleagues, I wouldn't say "estoy aprendiendo hablar español", but rather "aprendo hablar español". Is this correct?

[chileno]

Originally Posted by laepelba

Just to belabor this point a little bit ... I have been told (I think it was here in the forums) that native English speakers who are learning Spanish tend to overuse "estar + gerundio" because we use that construction more in English than it is used in Spanish. For example, I might be sitting at dinner with some of my math teacher colleagues and say to them "I am learning to speak Spanish." But it is my understanding (please, someone correct me if I am wrong), that if I am presently eating dinner and speaking Spanish with some colleagues, I wouldn't say "estoy aprendiendo a hablar español", but rather "aprendo hablar español". Is this correct?

I would say yes.

And I hesitate here, because to me there are some set answers depending on situations. ie:

I am asked "what are you doing"

- veo (la) tele

- estoy comprando la comida para la semana.


Stationary vs non-stationary, see the difference?

I don't know if I am imagining this or I am tainted by living in this country for so long.

[laepelba]

That makes sense to me. I have to say that as I spend more time with Spanish-speaking friends, I notice that they do not use "estar + gerundio" nearly as often as I am tempted to. One friend will send me a text message that will say "¿Qué haces?", but in English it would HAVE to be "What are you doing?" ... etc., etc.

[Luna Azul]

chileno - I would say yes.

I would say no.

Originally Posted by laepelba

Just to belabor this point a little bit ... I have been told (I think it was here in the forums) that native English speakers who are learning Spanish tend to overuse "estar + gerundio" because we use that construction more in English than it is used in Spanish. For example, I might be sitting at dinner with some of my math teacher colleagues and say to them "I am learning to speak Spanish." But it is my understanding (please, someone correct me if I am wrong), that if I am presently eating dinner and speaking Spanish with some colleagues, I wouldn't say "estoy aprendiendo hablar español", but rather "aprendo hablar español". Is this correct?

You're right when you say the construction is more used in English than in Spanish, but it seems to me it happens when you're talking about the future:

I'm traveling to Europe tomorrow. I'd never say "estoy viajando......· but "voy a viajar", "viajo", or (less common) "viajaré.

As for your sentence "I am learning to speak Spanish", I would certainly say "estoy aprendiendo a hablar español". It's the usual, the common way to say it. It doesn't necessarily mean that at that very minute you have your Spanish text book open on the dinner table. It means "at the present time/currently I am learning...... "

"yo aprendo a hablar español" is correct, but a little more general.. "among other things I learn to speak Spanish".

That makes sense to me. I have to say that as I spend more time with Spanish-speaking friends, I notice that they do not use "estar + gerundio" nearly as often as I am tempted to. One friend will send me a text message that will say "¿Qué haces?", but in English it would HAVE to be "What are you doing?" ... etc., etc.

In Spanish both ways are correct: "¿Qué haces?" = ¿"Qué estás haciendo?" mean exactly the same, if you read my previous post. I hope you did.

Luna Azul -
-¿Qué haces? (what are you doing?)
-Escribo una carta (I'm writing a letter)
These sentences mean exactly the same as ¿Qué estás haciendo? - Estoy escribiendo una carta.

[laepelba]

Thanks, all of you. It might seem a trivial point ... but I like learning about the things that are said differently in the two languages so that I can make a point to NOT sound so much like a gringa....

[chileno]

Originally Posted by laepelba

Thanks, all of you. It might seem a trivial point ... but I like learning about the things that are said differently in the two languages so that I can make a point to NOT sound so much like a gringa....

Believe me, once you get/adopt an accent and start to refine that accent you won't sound like a gringa and these finer points will go unnoticed.

[laepelba]

My tutor says that my accent is great! It's one thing that I'm relatively content with!!

[chileno]

Originally Posted by laepelba

My tutor says that my accent is great! It's one thing that I'm relatively content with!!

There you go!

If you are at a point where you can more or less differentiate certain accents in Spanish, whether they are from another American talking or different Spanish speaking countries, then you should start reading out loud while recording yourself and then listening and correcting whatever you think it is wrong. You will accomplish with this, great fluency and improve you abilities to think in Spanish and of course soften your own accent, to the point people are not going to be able to determine where is it that are from.

[laepelba]

Originally Posted by chileno

There you go!

If you are at a point where you can more or less differentiate certain accents in Spanish, whether they are from another American talking or different Spanish speaking countries, then you should start reading out loud while recording yourself and then listening and correcting whatever you think it is wrong. You will accomplish with this, great fluency and improve you abilities to think in Spanish and of course soften your own accent, to the point people are not going to be able to determine where is it that are from.

Determining the origins of different Spanish accents is actually of great interest to me. I don't know why ... but it is. I can usually distinguish an accent from Spain, and I can typically pick out Uruguashan and Argentinian accents (although I have GREAT difficulty understanding them!). I have also had difficulty understanding Chilean accents.

My tutor, who is Mexican, spends a LOT of time every week talking with me. Not just in our "classes", as we have become good friends, so we often meet for drinks or whatever. She almost always speaks to me in Spanish, and I press her to correct my mispronunciations, which she says are few. I have also done some exercises where I read to my tutor or to one of my Spanish-speaking friends, and ask them to critique my accent.

The one thing that my tutor has pointed out that I say a lot is "um" when I'm trying to think of the word that I'm looking for. She says that is the thing that is the dead give-away that I am a native English-speaker and is more significant than my "accent".