gerundio como sustantivo ... no.

Question

I know that in Spanish the gerund is not used as a noun, e.g. as the progressive "ing" form.

1st Question: Is this "always" true? e.g., "antes de cocinar" instead of "antes cocinando"

Our Senior Center self-learning Spanish group is learning to always precede an infinitive with "de" to convert it into the progressive form.

2nd Question: Is our approach sensible?

Gracias a todos

Answer 1

1. Your self-learning group is correct, in Spanish such a sentence wouln't be in the progressive form, so we can't use the gerund the same way you use it, it would make no sense whatsoever to say "antes de cocinando"; so stick to de+infinitivo

2. I don't know the method you guys are using to learn Spanish, but I would say that yes, it seems to be a very sensible approach to the learning process, at least on this one the group is right.

Thanks, diagonx. (We use an old laptop/projector for group interaction, with "Visual Link Spanish" as a base course, supported by "spanishdict", "wordreference", "TextAloud (Rosa)", and lots of coffee. :) ) - NMBookie, Jun 3, 2012

You're welcome.That means you are all motivated, I think that's the most important aspect when you embark on a learning process ¡buena suerte! - diagonx, Jun 3, 2012