Grammar Rules of "ing" Words

Question

When speaking English, to change from play to playing, you add "ING." To change swim to swimming, you add another m as well as "ING." The rules vary.

For Spanish, what specific rules are there as far as "ING words" are concerned?

You don't need to include exceptions.

Answer 1

In Spanish there are regular and irregular verbs. According to the ending or the verb, there is a possible ending to add (replacing the endings 'ar', 'er', ir') in order to get the gerund:

• AR --> ando. Amar --> Amando.
• ER --> iendo. Comer --> Comiendo.
• IR --> iendo. Vivir --> Viviendo.

However there are other irregular verbs where also the stem changes. You can read more about this here.

In English you add ing to a verb and you can use that word as a noun. Don't do that in Spanish. In Spanish that noun will be the infinitive version of the verb. Example:

Walking is good for the health. / Caminar es bueno para la salud.

Wow! so the Endings of words (AR, ER, and IR) can be replaced by a certain ending. Spanish is neater than I thought it was. - llamalovers000, Mar 20, 2013

Answer 2

One way is using the gerund (gerundio)

For example:

I am playing. Estoy jugando.

Another way is to use the infinitive form: infinitivo

Bailar tango es difícil.

Dancing the tango is hard.

Under Learn -> grammar -> verbs -> Other uses of infinitives

grammar link for infinitves

Answer 3

I am not an expert but Spanish has more than on way of dealing with the progresive.

Nado means I swim and I am swimming.

Estoy nadando means I am swimming.

Voy a nadar means I will be swimming.

These examples come to mind first... there may be more