Promover O Promoviendo

Question

He leído la siguiente frase: "El Instituto Cervantes nace con el fin de promover la lengua,” que se traduce como ” The Cervantes Institute is born with the goal of promoting the language." Tengo curiosidad por qué se utilizó el infinitivo “promover” en lugar del gerundio, "Promoviendo."

¡Gracias por su ayuda!

Jim

Answer 1

In Spanish we always use the infinitive form after any preposition, it´s a basic rule.

Preposition + Infinitive verb

Common prepositions: a, de, para, por, con, sin, sobre... and more

Answer 2

In English we use the gerund in many cases where in Spanish the infinitive is used.

In Spanish, for instance, the gerundio acts as an adverb, but never as a noun. In English we use the gerund as a noun.

In Spanish the gerund should essentially never be the object of a preposition, such as "de".

See this review of the gerundio- the part quoted is only a short bit of a long explanation.

http://users.ipfw.edu/jehle/COURSES/gerund.htm

A. The gerund is a verb form with an adverbial function; do not use it as a noun. Use the infinitive as the object of a preposition or as the subject of a verb: después de descansar = “after resting”; Leer es divertido = “Reading is fun”.

Gracias por su respuesta. Fue una gran ayuda. - jgundy, Sep 9, 2014

De nada. :) - bosquederoble, Sep 9, 2014

Answer 3

To use a gerund in this kind of sentence structure, the gerund must be used directly in conjunction with another verb, in this case: El Instituto Cervantes nace promoviendo la lengua. Obviously, now the meaning is slightly different.

Answer 4

Because of the word "de", and it doesn't make sense if you say promoviendo.