Gerund in Spanish - identical usage to English?

Question

Hey guys I would like to know whether the usage of gerund in Spanish is more or less identical to that of English. On a first glance, it seems to be very similar. por ejemplo : Estoy trabajando - I am working. Estuve trabajando - I was working. But is it really identical or almost identical? Are there any differences? Thanks in advance for your helpful comments. Maros

That wasn't the English gerund that was the English present participle. They're completely different things, they just look the same. - rabbitwho, Jan 20, 2012

Answer 1

1. As Qfreed said, that was the present participle, not the gerund.
2. No, the progressive tenses in English are used very differently to those in Spanish, I wish it was the same, but it's not.

I can't find a list of the differences, and I know if I write it myself it will be missing loads more and filled with errors, but I'll give you a few of the basic differences.

1. You cannot use the present continuous to talk about the future in Spanish, you only use it when talking about now. That is the only difference in the present tense really, that and you can't use it to say that you're annoyed at a habit, e.g. "I'm always losing my keys!" you have to say "I always lose my keys! uff!" as normal. (afik)

2. I was eating does not always translate as "estaba comiendo" (but estaba comiendo is always translated as "I was eating" I think) there are 4 ways to translate it, that way or with estuve, with soler, or comía. Depends on the situation the differences between the different past tenses in Spanish is a big thing, I have a whole 140 page book on it, you learn these things as you go along. When you first start learning Spanish you tend to translate everything directly, and then as time goes on you learn how it works and use the different tenses more carefully. You are going to here that aba/ía is like used to, it is, but only sometimes. Other times it's like the past continuous in English and other times it's like the past simple in English.

3. The future continuous "in 2015 I will be X-ing" seems to be the same to me so far.

Some links on this topic link text link text link text compound tenses in Spanish

Rabbitwho, Thank you for your clarification. It was very helpful and I hope not only for me, but also for other learners of espaňol on this site :-) - maros77, Jan 20, 2012

Great comments. What is the name of that book? - JoyceM, Jan 20, 2012

Uff I can't find it Joyce! It's published by something like "edel" And the name is something like "usos del pasado" I'll post it when it turns up, I hope I didn't leave it in school. Another good book is Gramatica Básica published by Difusiión - rabbitwho, Jan 20, 2012

But Gramática Básica (del estudiante de espanol) only has 7 pages on the past tenses, big pages, but still. - rabbitwho, Jan 20, 2012

http://www.edelsa.es/catalogo_colecciontiempo2.php I got over excited! There's just 84 pages. - rabbitwho, Jan 20, 2012

Answer 2

First you should clear up what you are comparing: the Spanish gerundio has very little in common with the Englsih gerund, but I actually think that you meant to compare the Spanish gerundio with the English present particliple. Even these two have little in common except that the English gerund, the English present participle and the Spanish gerundio all translate as the "ing" form of the word. The English gerund is a noun and has less in common with the Spanish gerundio than the English present participle. But the present participle in English and the Spanish gerundio also aren't very similar .

The present participle, the "ing" form of the verb in English, is used mostly as an adjective. (e.g. the barking dog) or the ing verb form (progressive tenses). I was talking to her.

The Spanish gerundio serves mostly as an adverb (mostly modifying the verb) or as the present participle of the verb (continuous tenses....estoy hablando), The gerundio can be used as an adjective, but much less often than as an adverb.

usos del gerundio

Forget my answer if what you were actually referring to were the progressive tenses in both Spanish and English. There are similar, but even they have differences as Spanish uses several verbs of motion (as well as Estar) to form what is considered its continuous tense, while English uses the verb to be (with auxillary verbs) along with the present participle. (I will be talking...)

Sorry, I was only reffering to progressive tenses. So, actually, I made a terminological mistake. Any clarification on this matter, please? - maros77, Jan 20, 2012