Gerundios en Espanol
Hola a tod@s,
Queiro decir eso:
My father came to the country only knowing Spanish. How do you think he felt?
Mi padre llegó al pais solo saber a Español. ¿Como piensan que se sentía él?
Es correcto, o no? Siempre tengo problemas de cambiar el gerundio en inglés, porque no creo que suene bien, "sabiendo", no?
¡Gracias!
1 Answer
Do wait for a native speaker but actually for your sentence I think that sabiendo would be the right choice (see No 4 below).
My suggestion would be ....
Mi padre llegó al pais sabiendo sólo Español. ¿Cómo piensan que se sentía él?
I understand why you hesitate though.
Because the Spanish gerundio is not equal to the English gerund things can get rather confusing when it comes to this topic.
I'm still learning too but if you'd like to learn more about it let's see what we can come up with ..
The Spanish gerundio is not the same as the English gerund, nor is it exactly the same as the English present participle. It does however usually behaves like an adverb making it much more like the English present participle than a gerund.
Linguistically I believe the best term to describe the gerundio is 'an adverbial participle' (a verbal adverb).
Why it isn't equivalent to the English gerund:
In English the gerund can function as a noun - I like swimming
but in Spanish the infinitive fills this purpose
Me gusta nadar.
A Spanish gerundio is formed by removing the infinitive endings, ar, er, and ir and by adding ando to ar verbs and iendo to er and ir verbs.
Ar--->ando Er --->iendo Ir --->iendo
For example: sabiendo (knowing), hablando (speaking), comiendo (eating), viviendo (living).
1: it is used with estar to form the progressive tenses
Estoy escribiendo. I am writing.
Estaba escribiendo. I was writing.
2: It can act as an adverb, in this role it will usually answer the question 'how'? How is something being done?, or 'how' is something taking place?
Gerundios as adverbs modify other verbs in the sentence or serve as a foundation for an adverbial phrase.
Terminó hablando de ella. He ended up talking to her.
[How did he end up? Talking to her]
Permaneció mirando el techo. He stayed (kept) looking at the ceiling.
[How did he stay? Looking at the ceiling]
Salió (de la casa) corriendo. He went running (out of the house). or He ran out (of the house)
Mi mamá entró llorando. My mum came in crying.
Luego mis primos vinieron pidiendo más dinero. Then my cousins came along asking for more money.
Ese tipo anda quejándose de todo. That guy goes around complaining about everything.
Continuó hablando. He went on (carried on) talking.
3. Gerundios are usually about doing something so they often introduce an adverbial phrase and are able to answer the question 'doing what?' or 'by doing what?':
Viviendo en Ecuador, era fácil aprender español. Living in Ecuador, it was easy to learn Spanish.
Doing what was it easy to learn Spanish? Living in Ecuador.
No ganó mucho escribiendo cuentos cortos.
He didn't earn much by writing short stories.
4: The gerund usually expresses action that is happening at the same time or before the action in the main clause of the sentence. In these cases it often shows a cause and can well be expressed with the English phrase 'seeing as', 'because', 'since' + subject + past participle etc.
Sabiendo qué hacer, pude entrar en la película sin que nadie me viera.
Knowing [seeing as I knew, because I knew, since I knew etc] what to do, I was able to get into the movie without anybody seeing me
It is possible however to use a gerundio to express an action that comes after that expressed in the main clause.
Chocó violentamente con él, haciéndole caer de bruces.
Something extra to note: OCCASIONALLY A GERUNDIO CAN ACT AS AN ADJECTIVE
Most ‘gerundios’ cannot be used like adjectives, but there are exceptions such as “hirviendo”, “ardiendo” (and often “colgando”).
With these kind exceptions the gerund would act as an adjective describing the subject of the main clause:
Eg. Incorrect: Los bomberos entraron al escuela ardiendo en llamas.
this would mean that the firemen were on fire so you wouldn't want to use the gerundio here. Correct: Los bomberos entraron a la escuela que ardía en llamas.
But with other verbs the subject of the ‘gerundio’ does not have to be the subject of the main sentence.
Eg: Lo vio comiendo. I saw him eating.
Siempre oigo a mi marido cantando en la ducha.
I always hear my husband singing in the shower.
