Oh dear, object placement, again.

Oh dear, object placement, again.
 

Until now, I thought I had a handle on this. Object placement with the imperative seems straightforward, but not so with infinitives in the examples given in my current unit of Duolingo (19). In these exercises, the object seems to float freely in position, from one example to the next, before or following the infinitive. In the two correct examples below, the mood seems the same, but the object placement is different. In the second, I tried la estoy poniendo but it was incorrect.


Traje carne y la estoy cocinando.
Hice sopa de lentejas y estoy poniendola en un bol.

The object pronoun can go in either position when a gerundio figures in the verb conjugation (gerundio = English present participle). When the object pronoun is suffixed to the gerundio, an accent mark maintains original stress.

... estoy poniéndola ... (English progressive tense)

(This same treatment is always given the infinitivo, when it's used as a verbal.)