English gerund equivalents

[LearningSpanish]

Update - thanks guys grrr I always get those terms mixed up - why did some grammar genius decide to use the name gerund and gerundio and have them mean different things? lol


Hi there - I am putting together a list of present participles for my English student that I can laminate and chop up for her to use, to make English sentences in the present progressive tense.


As she is from El Salvador and knows very, very little English I thought I would try to help her by having the Spanish equivalent on the back of the card.

She will be looking at pictures and combining word cards to form sentences with a subject + am/is/are + present participle

Eg. Looking at a picture of a dog having it's dinner she will need to find three cards to form the sentence: 1. the dog, 2. is 3. eating.

Of course not all verbs work the same way in English and Spanish and although a lot of the present participles will work I don't think that this always the case.

Below is the list I've compiled and I was wondering if someone might please check it for me before I print and laminate them.

Thanks in advance for your help


running corriendo
jumping saltando
eating comiendo
sleeping durmiendo
hugging abrazando
lying estar acostado
sitting estar sentado
standing estar parado
playing jugando
walking caminando, andando
dreaming soñando
swimming nadando
hiding escondiendo
patting (an animal) acariciando
dozing quedarse dormido
washing lavando
pecking picando, picoteando
leaping saltando
yawning bostezando
diving zambulliendose, tirandose
learning aprendiendo
washing lavando
going yendo
looking mirando
thinking pensando
doing haciendo
giving dando
studying estudiando

Also if there are any other tricky ones that anyone can think of for future reference please do let me know, thanks!

[Rusty]

lying estar acostado acostándose
sitting estar sentado sentándose
standing estar parado parándose
petting (an animal) acariciando
dozing quedarse dormido quedándose dormido
diving zambulléndose, tirándose al agua


Caution! What you've written above on the left are both English gerunds and present participles. In English, the gerund and the present participle look exactly alike, but do NOT have the same role in a sentence.
The translations on the right are Spanish gerundios. These are NOT the same thing as the English gerund. The gerundio can be used as an adverb and is used to form the continuous tenses. It is never used as a noun or an adjective.
English gerunds always act as nouns.
The English present participle can be used as an adjective or an adverb and it is used to form the progressive tenses. It can never act as a noun.

So, an English gerund (unfortunate misnomer) should never be compared to a Spanish gerundio.

Here are some English gerunds with the Spanish equivalent (the infinitive).

Seeing is believing. Ver es creer.
Reading is easy. Leer es fácil.
I like reading. Me gusta leer.
I love learning languages. Me encanta aprender idiomas.
Greeting someone in Argentina is usually done with a kiss. Saludar con un beso es habitual en Argentina.

[Perikles]

She will be looking at pictures and combining word cards to form sentences with a subject + am/is/are + gerund:bad:.I think you may have to change your thread title. You are talking about present participles, not gerunds. The gerund is a noun as in 'I hate running'.

This is always confusing because the present participle in Spanish is called the gerundio

Edit: cross-posting. Sorry Rusty

[LearningSpanish]

Thanks peeps :)

[poli]

The English gerund as in Pericles' "I hate running" is synonomous to I hate to run. It's good to know that I hate to run translates directly to the Spanish odio correr. That's an easy rule to remember. The English gerund unsually can be substituted with the infinitive which is exactly as it is said in Spainish.

[Perikles]

The English gerund unsually can be substituted with the infinitive which is exactly as it is said in Spainish.But there are plenty of times when it cannot (in English), especially when used as a noun with an article or adjective:

The holly and the ivy,
When they are both full grown
Of all the trees that are in the wood
The holly bears the crown
O the rising of the sun
And the running of the deer
The playing of the merry organ
Sweet singing of the choir

:) I guess you would translate these gerunds as infinitives in Spanish as well. Is that right? :thinking:

[poli]

But there are plenty of times when it cannot (in English), especially when used as a noun with an article or adjective:

The holly and the ivy,
When they are both full grown
Of all the trees that are in the wood
The holly bears the crown
O the rising of the sun I would say: el levante del sol
And the running of the deer ¿ el recorrido?:thinking:
The playing of the merry organ
Sweet singing of the choir El canto del coro

:) I guess you would translate these gerunds as infinitives in Spanish as well. Is that right? :thinking:
I'm nearly positive that in these cases the gerunds wound not be used as
infinitive. Natives speakers may help us here. I think their grammatical function is different from the typical English gerund. In these cases, they can all be preceeded with the. It's been a long time since I've studied the baffling science of linguistics.

[LearningSpanish]

lying estar acostado acostándose
sitting estar sentado sentándose
standing estar parado parándose


Thanks for your suggestions Rusty but wouldn't these be the equivalent of being in the process of laying down, being in the process of sitting down etc, rather than the English 'sitting' to mean 'being seated'.

Eg so if I show the lady the picture of a dog sitting next to a lady and I wanted her to say 'the dog is sitting next to the lady' the Spanish equivalent can't be 'el perro se sienta al lado de la mujer' because the dog isn't in the act of sitting but he is 'sat'. If you get what I mean lol

But there are plenty of times when it cannot (in English), especially when used as a noun with an article or adjective:

The holly and the ivy,
When they are both full grown
Of all the trees that are in the wood
The holly bears the crown
O the rising of the sun
And the running of the deer
The playing of the merry organ
Sweet singing of the choir

:) I guess you would translate these gerunds as infinitives in Spanish as well. Is that right? :thinking:

What about 'la salida' del sol? And maybe 'la huida' for the running? El canto for 'the singing'? :)

[Rusty]

Thanks for your suggestions Rusty but wouldn't these be the equivalent of being in the process of laying down, being in the process of sitting down etc, rather than the English 'sitting' to mean 'being seated'. You were asking for the present participle (Spanish gerundios) and that is what I provided. 'The dog is sitting' is an example of the English present progressive tense. The picture would be of a dog in the process of sitting down. 'The dog is sitting' is also an example of the English subject / subject complement' structure. Here the picture would be of a dog sitting (next to the lady). Here, 'sitting' is an adjective (a predicate adject or subject complement, to be exact), and a present participle can double as an adjective (or an adverb) in English.

Eg so if I show the lady the picture of a dog sitting next to a lady and I wanted her to say 'the dog is sitting next to the lady' the Spanish equivalent can't be 'el perro se sienta al lado de la mujer' because the dog isn't in the act of sitting but he is 'sat'. If you get what I mean lol
In the last example you gave, instead of 'se sienta', use 'está sentado'. The dog is seated. The Spanish past participle can be used as an adjective.

[LearningSpanish]

In the last example you gave, instead of 'se sienta', use 'está sentado'. The dog is seated. The Spanish past participle can be used as an adjective.

Agreed, thankyou, that's why I had 'estar sentado' as the equivalent of sitting in my list, I was just a bit baffled why you suggested sentarse as, if my understanding is correct, that really can only refer to the action of moving your body so that the lower part of it eventually rests on a surface. As soon as you touch the surface, the action of "sentarse" is over.

And my thought is that the same would apply for lying and standing.

estar acostado instead of acostándose and standing estar parado instead of parándose

Sorry about labouring the point but I just want to make sure that I have it right in my head.:thinking:

[Rusty]

The idea is correct, so long as you're talking about a state. That's when you would use the past participle (está sentado, está acostado, etc.). If, on the other hand, you are talking about an action, you would use the present participle (está sentándose, está acotándose, etc.). Your original post indicated that you wanted to form the progressive tense (the dog is eating). This is an action, so the present participle is needed. Does that help?

[LearningSpanish]

Your original post indicated that you wanted to form the progressive tense (the dog is eating). This is an action, so the present participle is needed. Does that help?

Quite right you are, a bad description on my part. It's not always easy using the right words when the grammar points don't match exactly in Eng/Spansih eg, the dog is sitting (our present progressive) = está sentado (hmm I'm not even sure what this is called), lol - Anyways, thanks heaps for bearing with me :)

[Rusty]

eg, the dog is sitting (our present progressive) = está sentadoNo, this is not correct. Our present progressive ('the dog is sitting') describes an action in progress. The Spanish equivalent is 'el perro está sentándose'.

'Sitting' is a troublesome word to use because it can mean two different things - both an action and a state - and it doesn't use the regular form for the past participle (I wrote 'seated' earlier as a good alternative that uses the regular ending, and it's easier to equate with the state).

The state, 'the dog is sitting (next to someone/something)', is expressed with a past participle in Spanish, not a present participle. So, its equivalent is 'el perro está sentado'.

Now, because 'sitting' can mean two things, let's make it more clear. The verb 'eat' has regular forms of the present and past participles.

1) The dog is eating.
(present participle - eating: Spanish equivalent - comiendo)

2) The dog is eaten.
(past participle - eaten: Spanish equivalent - comido)

Sentence 1 describes an action in progress, while sentence 2 describes a state.

So, the Spanish present participle, known as el gerundio, is used to form the continuous (progressive) tense. It can also be used as an adverb.
The Spanish past participle, known as el participio ((de) pasado), can be used as an adjective.
In the phrase, 'the dog is eaten', the past participle acts as an adjective (technically a predicate adjective or subject complement) and describes a state.

[LearningSpanish]

Oh goodness, the trouble is if you look at a picture and there's a dog sitting next to a lady you're going to say, the dog is sitting next to the lady. Even though you're referring to the state, not the action. You're very unlikely to say, the dog is seated next to the lady.

For me our present progressive doesn't only work for actions in progress, among other things I would say it applies to situations that we view as temporary. I'm reading a really good book. etc

So what tense would you say is the bolded option? There's no movement, the dog's been sitting there for however long and is going to continue sitting there - it's definitely the state you're referring to.

[Rusty]

To talk about someone's/something's state, I mentioned that you must use the 'subject/subject complement' construction. The predicate adjective, another term for the subject complement in our particular case, describes the state.

In English, the predicate adjective can be a present participle, a past participle or an adjective. No matter what the word is, its role is 'predicate adjective' in this case.

In Spanish, only the past participle or an adjective can be used as a predicate adjective.

The boy is sleeping/asleep. (not the action, but the state)
= El chico está dormido.

The dog is tired.
= El perro está cansado.

The dog is lying down. (not the action, but the state)
= El perro está acostado.

El perro está|estaba|estuve|estará|etc. sentado. (Any form of the linking verb 'to be' may be used.)
La chica está|estaba|etc. sentada.