Está colgado vs está colgando
Hi guys,
This seems like something I should know by now but...
I was trying out my friend's rosetta stone and this sentence came up:
"Los platos están ______ arriba de la cama". The options are (colgados/cerrados). Clearly the answer is colgados, but if I wouldn't have been given the options I would have said "colgando" - the gerund, to form the present progressive. I actually didn't know that the participle was used with anything other than "haber" in the perfect tenses and I think it is occasionally used as a noun. Can anyone please explain why the participle is used in this instance rather than the gerund, and how to make this distinction?
Thanks.
8 Answers
Está colgado (It is hung) vs está colgando (It is hanging). The first refers to the type of the noun in question; hence colgado, -a depending on the noun. The second refers to the condition of the noun in question; therefore no need for noun agreement.
A 'gerund' in English acts as a noun and is not a particple, also, a gerund in English is not the gerundio in Español. This is a common mistaken assumption that English speakers make when translating English to Spanish.
A gerund stems from a verbal, or a verb form, but does not act as a verb in a sentence. There are three types of verbals: gerunds, participles, and infinitives. A gerund is a verbal that functions as a noun. Though a gerund is formed from a verb and indicates an action or state of being, it acts as a noun and therefore occupies a place in a sentence where a noun normally would such as a subject, a direct object, or an object of a preposition. This only applies to English. Again, the english gerund is not the spanish gerundio.
You convert adverb into an adjective by using its participle. For example:
Usar becomes usado
To use becomes used.
Quemé la ropa usada. I burned the used clothes.
Notice that this change from to use to used occurs when using the perfective in English too.
I have used = He (I have) usado (used).
More examples:
La puerta cerrada es sucia. The closed door is dirty.
Me gusta recibir regalos que no son rotos. I like receiving plates that aren't broken.
Los esclavos libertados están felices. The freed slaves are happy.
Me pregunto qué chalado diría "Los platos están colgados arriba de la cama". No sé en América, pero en España se dice "sobre la cama". Pero es más, en España nadie cuelga platos sobre (¿Dónde? ¿En el techo del dormitorio?) la cama.
Colgado in this case is an adjective. It is like the past paticiple of colgar but is in fact an adjective. That is why estar is the verb in this case instead of ser. If you used ser, and said 'la pintura es colgada sobre la cama', that would also be grammatically correct, and would mean 'The painting is hung over the bed', but I don't think that would be the preferred way to say it. But here you are using estar plus an adjective... There are lots of cases where a past participle becomes an adjective, as in "La iglésia está ubicada por aquí." Or, estar sentado; perdido; confundido... And un montón más.
You also could say 'La pintura está colgando sobre la cama' and be correct... it has a slightly different emphasis and might be used, for example, to say "Su vida estaba colgando por un hilo."
Bottom line, in the example you gave colgado is not used as a past participle, but as an adjective. Same word, different part of speech.
Ok, I'm confused. You say that the gerund in english does not function as a verb but instead as a noun. But the spanishdict dictionary lists the gerund as "colgando" and the participle as "colgado". Are you saying the gerund in spanish is not colgando? Or is there an error in the spanishdict dictionary? Because in the simple example "La pintura esta colgando", colgando is functioning as a verb not a noun, no?
Hi, Luke.
It's the difference between something is placed somewhere (by a person or another agent) vs. something is in the process of hanging somewhere.
The plates are hung in the cupboard...they are placed in the cupboard. This is an adjective.
Something" is hanging" somewhere is the present perfecct tense.
I believe that we freely used either one in English as an adjective, but not so in Spanish.
also, the second one is more like saying they are being placed at that moment. The other way is that they are already in place, thus, placed. mom2many
