-ing verbs

Question

Ok so I have seen ing verbs 3 ways... I need to know the difference. Way one is just to say el/la and then the infinitive. And i dont know when to do el or la in that situation...Next way is dropping the ending and adding iente or ante. Finally just the progressive ando and iendo. Ex el correr, corriente, corriendo. Gracias

Answer 1

Perhaps I can help you with one mystery.

In English we can use -ing words as nouns (these are called gerunds).

'Reading' is fun.

In Spanish this is not possible using your -ando, -iendo endings (the present participles) which are usually the equivalent of our -ing words.

In those cases you would just use the infintive.

Leer es divertido.

Answer 2

To expand on what Kiwi said:

We use the gerund at times as a noun, verb form, adverb, and adjective- the gerundio in spanish is not used as a noun or adjective, only the progressive tenses or as an adverb:

First- iendo ando the gerundio- used as the progressive with estar or some other verbs, and used as an adverb to modify a verb:

Están corriendo- they are running. Seguí corriendo- I continued running. Progressive.

Salieron corriendo- they left running. Pasó el día corriendo. He spent the day running. Adverb modifying the verb- how the day was spent, how they left.

Next as a noun- use the infinitive

Me gusta correr- I like running. Correr es saludable- Running is healthy

Finally as an adjective (modifies a noun):

Agua corriente- running water.

I would just clarify that in English a gerund refers only to a present participle when it is used as a noun. The confusion often springs from the fact that 'gerundio' in Spanish refers to the present participle however it is used and is not equivalent to - Kiwi-Girl, Jul 18, 2015

the English gerund. - Kiwi-Girl, Jul 18, 2015