El sufrir VS el sufrimiento

Question

Noticed el sufrir a few times, I figure it's the suffering, but what about el sufrimiento?

El sufrir es gritar, etc...

El sufrir se va a acabar. Can sufrimiento be substituted here or are is sufrir better, I know verbs can be nouns, inf's and all that jazz, but when a noun already exists why do that with it?

Gracias.

Answer 1

Jeezle you'll get a better, more knowledgable answer I'm sure, but the use of the infinitive as a subject noun functions grammatically the way we use the gerund of a verb as a subject noun.

Singing is a blessing.

Cantar es una bendición, or

El cantar es una bendición.

Obviously the infinitive can be used as the object of a verb or a preposition as well:

Ten moderación en el beber.

Quiero salir.

Your specific question is when do you use El with the subject infinitive. In the example you gave, I think the uses - el sufrir and el sufrimiento - are interchageable.

The one observation I would like to make is that to say "El sufrir" or "El cantar" is to invoke a genrality, perhaps to be a little preachy, to be a bit formal in speech, as is often the case in Spanish.

No my question is why use sufrir when sufrimiento seems to work perfectly fine, maybe because it's shorter, or does it have a stronger meaning than sufrimiento etc.... ;) - jeezzle, Aug 6, 2011

OK, so I should have just said that I think it's sort of old fashioned and flowery and a bit formal to use El sufrir instead of El sufimiento, but I don't think there is a difference in meaning beyond that. - Jeremias, Aug 6, 2011

Well I'm always looking for shorter ways, I heard Spanish is like 25 percent longer on the whole than English to speak, so shorter words are always good to me. - jeezzle, Aug 6, 2011

buena respuesta - 00494d19, Aug 7, 2011

Gracias por decirlo, Heidita. :) - Jeremias, Aug 7, 2011

There is no "gerund" in Spanish. - samdie, Aug 7, 2011

generality :) Nice answer Jeremias, - Kiwi-Girl, Aug 7, 2011

Answer 2

...but when a noun already exists why do that with it?

Why not? Maybe the person who wrote it liked the sound of it better than "sufrimiento". It sounds slightly different, and definitely more literary, but I can't tell what the difference -if any- is.

Good point. - jeezzle, Aug 7, 2011

Answer 3

Ye gods and little fishes! How lucky we English speakers (since there are no synonyms in our language), we have one, and only one, way to express/convey/communicate/verbalize/articulate our thoughts.

Down with synonyms!

You must have a pretty big ladder to be able to get up on that horse buddy. - jeezzle, Aug 7, 2011