What is the rule for the use of a participle as an adjective in lieu of the gerundio?

[Sancho Panther]

I refer to a mountain beauty spot near where my daughter used to live in Spain called "El Leon Dormido" which she maintained was incorrect and should be "El León Durmiendo". Can anyone refer me to the rule which applies to this?

She has an advanced diploma in Spanish btw!

[poli]

Grammar fine points are sometimes over my head, but wouldn't the león durmiendo mean the sleeping lion and the león dormido mean the lion asleep?

When I was taught Spanish, I was told that the gerund or present progressive
verb tense was less used. That proved to be a good lesson.

[Rusty]

Both durmiendo and dormido are playing the role of an adjective in this case.

-- Grammar Lesson --
In English, the first is termed either a gerund or a present participle. Both can play the role of an adjective or an adverb, but have different functions when NOT being used in these roles. A gerund is a noun. The present participle is used to create the progressive/continuous verb form, where it immediately follows a conjugated form of the infinitive BE.
The second is called a past participle. (The original poster had written 'preterit' in the thread title, but I changed it to 'participle' so the thread content matches the title.) A past participle is used to form the perfect tenses, where it appears immediately after a conjugated form of the auxiliary HAVE.

In Spanish, the first is termed a gerundio. (Unfortunately, the English term 'gerund' is a false friend of the Spanish term 'gerundio.' The English equivalent of a Spanish gerundio is the present participle. The Spanish equivalent of the English gerund is the 'infinitivo.') A gerundio can be used as an adjective or an adverb, or it immediately follows the conjugated infinitive ESTAR to create the progressive/continuous verb form.
The second is called a participio. (Since Spanish has no 'present' participle (this is the gerundio), there's no reason to qualify the Spanish equivalent of the English past participle. But in English, we make the distinction between a gerund and a present participle (both ending in -ing but serving different functions).) The participio can act as an adjective or an adverb, or it is used to form the perfect tenses, where it appears immediately after a conjugated form of the auxiliary HABER.
/-- Grammar Lesson --


The first phrase is translated as 'a sleeping lion;' the second, 'an asleep lion' (poli waxed poetic by switching the noun and adjective in his translation - we can also say 'a lion sleeping' in the same vein).


As to the question that was asked in the emended title, the difference is a matter of perception.

The lion is either asleep (his state) or sleeping (what's happening).

What matters is what the person perceived when the placename was coined.
The gerundio would normally be used to describe something that is happening.
The participio would normally be used to describe a state.

Your daughter apparently perceives the lion as sleeping (something happening) rather than a lion that's asleep (its state). The person who coined the landmark saw its state.

My .

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

I agree with Rusty.

We have a mountain here referred to as "la mujer dormida". We would never say "la mujer durmiendo" or "la mujer durmiente". We don't expect the "woman" to wake up or change her state, I'd say that is why we use the past participle here.
Also, we translate the name "Sitting Bull" as "Toro Sentado". In this case, maybe we should have said "Toro Sedente" (bull in a sitting position), but the adjective (in this case, the present participle), is almost exclusively used in ancient texts or poetry.
I suppose here we still think of the state of the bull rather than his action to sit down.


I can't think of a "rule"; it will all depend on the context, I guess.

[Sancho Panther]

Well yes, that's clarified it a bit so thanks for that. I have copy of Jaques de Bruyne's "Comprehensive Spanish Grammar" (all six hundred + pages of it!); and no mention of my query ay all.

But there are a great many words in it so I might have missed it; it's not an easy read!

I can recommend it - it's a very comprehensive and authoritative volume, but an easy read it definitely ain't!