Gerund or infinitive

Gerund or infinitive
 

how come in Spanish you say PARADO & not PARANDO when you want to say standing? y the participle & not the gerund? & how would people know you're talking about standing & not stopping???

I'd say "estoy de pie". But in some places it is said "estoy parado" (not parando). To me "estoy parado" means I'm unemployed /stopped. :)

Estoy de pie and estoy parado mean the same thing in Central America.
And estoy parado also means "I'm stopped." :)

Context is the only way to know which meaning of estar parado was intended. This is true of many words in both languages.

Note: Estar de pie or estar parado are two ways to say the phrase to be standing. This phrase should not be confused with the verb pararse (to stand up/to stop); the word standing (parado) is actually an adjective (subjective complement or predicate adjective, to be exact). The verb is a linking verb (copula). Only the linking verb is conjugated.
The word parando is a Spanish gerundio, known as a present participle in English. It has no part in the phrase. It can be used when forming a progressive tense of the verb pararse, however.

Compare this with the phrase estar sentado (to be seated) and the verb sentarse (to sit down/to seat oneself). To use the phrase with the linking verb, you would say estoy sentada (I'm seated), if you're a female. If you're using the verb, you would say me siento (I'm sitting down). This is the action, not the state, and it's conjugated in the present indicative tense. If you want to use the present progressive tense, you would say me estoy sentando (I'm currently in the process of sitting down).

I hope this helps.

Perhaps the word is used differently in Spanish, but I would say parando is a participio de presente (= present participle), not gerundio. In English, there is a grammatical difference between a present participle and a gerund, although they have the same form. The gerund is a noun form of the verb.

Gerund: Walking is good exercise
Present Part.: I am walking along the street. :)

i

It's important to know that the gerund is not often used in Spanish.
Instead we most often use the infinitve.
Here are examples:
Walking is a good excercise. Caminar es un buen ejercicio.

Yes, good point. Come to think of it, when do you use the gerund in Spanish? :thinking:

I have consulted some grammar books, and find that the Spanish gerundio is nothing like the English gerund, so it is really, really confusing.

I am working: working is a present participle
Estoy trabajando: trabajando es gerundio

Further, the gerundio is never used as a verbal noun, but in English, the gerund is a verbal noun.

I like drawing (gerund) = me gusta dibujar :thinking::thinking:

I'm trying think if the traditional English gerund can be used in Spanish.
I think the following sentence is OK in Spanish:

Sabiendo que estás en vaccaciones, fui a tu casa a recoger tu correo.

--I'm not sure of the grammatical function however. If a gerund is a verb that acts as a noun in English, I'm not sure what part of speech sabiendo is.

sabiendo is a gerundio, but in this instance in English translation, it is a present participle.

You can't use a gerund as a subject, but the infinitive:

Drinking is not good for you
Beber no es bueno para ti

Spanish gerund has the following functions:

- As a verb:

Trabajando tanto y sin poder llegar a fin de mes

- As an adverb:

Salió corriendo

- As an adjective:

Vimos un coche ardiendo

Yes, this is why it is rather confusing. The Spanish gerundio is sometimes the English present participle. The English gerund is always a noun. (I think)

I think on the contrary, I don't understand why you distinguish between present participle and gerund. It's the same word (to me :thinking: )

You could be right. The difference is very important for some other languages, but I did not realise what the situation was in Spanish.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerund es bastante informativo.

to be correct I would suggest using the gerund after you use the verb estar. (estoy mintiendo, estás mintiendo, está mintiendo, estamos mintiendo)

Yes, this is what I was saying. The Spanish gerundio IS the English present participle. I was trying to steer everyone away from calling it a gerund. That is an entirely different part of speech. The Spanish word gerundio and the English word gerund are false friends. They look alike, but have different meanings.

@hola: What you wrote in your last post is the present progressive tense of the verb mentir. This tense splits the verb into two pieces - the conjugated form of estar, followed by the gerundio. You can conjugate the verb pararse into the present progressive tense this way:
me estoy parando, te estás parando, etc.

The present progressive tense is not being used in the phrase you were asking about in the first post. Estar parado means 'to be standing'. The verb 'to be' is a linking verb. The word 'standing' is the subjective complement (predicate adjective). This phrase describes a state, not an action. To describe the act of standing up, you use the verb pararse.

If you're standing in a field and a girl is sitting next to you, estás parada y ella está sentada. This phrase describes states. But, if the girl next to you started to stand up (action), you could then say ella se está parando. Pararse is the action verb, and the tense is the present progressive.

Don't worry too much about it, Irma. Many times native English speakers have trouble distinguishing the two types as well. It's in how the word is used, though context doesn't always allow it to be perfectly distinguished. :eek: I've seen a move toward calling the -ING form the gerund-participle to clarify that there is just one form that is used in multiple ways.

Thanks, Cloud :)

But I don't understand what you said: "I've seen a move" :thinking:, ¿un movimiento?

And I don't know if it's a "move", but I've always study the "-ing form" in my English grammar books.
:)

she means move = tendencia :)

OK, thanks, Perikles :)

¿Pero tú no te ibas? :D

Exactly :) It's a casual use of move in place of tendency.
(Hey! I'm a he! ;) )