The Word "Dando"
Is "dando" a conjugated verb, an adjective, or a noun, and what does it mean'
15 Answers
The Real Academia Española says (rough translation):
Despite what some old tradition used to maintain, words like suavizante, envolvente, etc., however, are not present participles from a synchronic point of view, but verb-derived adjectives. A proof of this, among other things, is that their syntactic behaviour is identical to adjectives ending in -dor and similar endings, and not to that of proper "gerundios": [...] desafiantes del tiempo. There are, however, a few remainings of the old participle-like syntaxis.
English and Spanish syntaxes are not identical, and even though in the past these active participles had a different behaviour, nowadays this use is pretty much alive in English, but not in Spanish. The word "gerundio" is now used mainly for an adverbial / verbal function, and it has no connection with the English gerund, which is basically a noun. On the other hand, "participios" and past participles are, as you said, essentially adjectival in nature.
"In English, participles are adjectival in nature, gerunds nominal. Based upon the above, the same, as I suspected, applies to Spanish.". Spanish "gerundios" are adverbs (they modify the verb, and they can't modify nouns directly); words ending in -nte and -or are adjectives. There is no connection between any of these and an adverb in Spanish.
My research reveals the following. "In linguistics, a participle (from Latin participium, a calque of Greek '''''? "partaking") is a derivative of a non-finite verb, which can be used in compound tenses or voices, or as a modifier. Participles often share properties with other parts of speech, in particular adjectives and nouns. In Spanish, the present or active participle (participio activo or participio de presente) of a verb is traditionally formed with one of the suffixes -ante, -ente or -iente, but modern grammar does not consider it a verbal form any longer, as they become adjectives or nouns on their own: e.g. amante "loving", viviente "living" or "live". In English, participles are adjectival in nature, gerunds nominal. Based upon the above, the same, as I suspected, applies to Spanish. Since participles modify nouns, they are by nature adjectival, not adverbial. Since gerunds are essentially nouns, they do not modify and are likewise not adverbial.
Hola!
I am still new to learning Spanish.
The word "Dando" seems to be a conjugation of the verb "Dar" which means "To Give".
Someone, please correct me if I'm wrong. I would hate to give out the wrong information.
I think the word dando means "giving". Since I dont know what gerundio is, I cannot be certain. However, when I looked in the conjugator for something else and I happened across both these words: gerundio and dando on the same page.
On the conjugation tab up top here, look up the word Dar. Hopefully that will help.
P.S. Looks like I'm really really late for this topic. Still I hope we are all very helpful to you 
Adverbs in Spanish (and in English) modify mainly the verb, but also other adjectives. "Adverbial" means "related to the adverb and its behaviour".
The sentence "el niño llorando" was an example of what you cannot do with a "gerundio" in Spanish, because of its adverbial nature.
An adverb modifies a verb. In the instance cited, "llorando" modifies the noun "niño" and is therefore adjectival in nature. Adverbs can only enhance the meaning of a verb, as in "he spoke poorly" (habló mal"). You may be attempting to apply the meaning of the Spanish term "adverbial" to the English term "adverbial". I am not sure what the term means in Spanish but it could be that the Spanish term means "adjectival" in English. In other words, false cognates with which one must always be careful!
I disagree! According to all my over 20 grammars, the "gerundio" is mostly adverbial, and it can be -under some circumstances- adjectival, but this happens rarely.
The word "parpadeante" is an adjective, not a "gerundio". The mayority of the verbs cannot function as an adjective the way "parpadear" does: e.g. "El niño llorando" is wrong unless "llorando" has an adverbial function supporting the verb: you have to say "el niño que llora".
P.S. The ending -nte in "parpadeante" is used to turn verbs into adjectives.
This is mostly correct. However the gerundio most definitely is adjectival in nature, not adverbial. In the expression "una luz parpadeante", the final word is adjectival, not adverbial (where, when, how, etc.)
ENGLISH
participle: it shares verb and adjective functions, and it ends in -ed (past part.) or -ing (present part.). The present participle behaves like the spanish "gerundio", mostly, but it can also behave like an adjective, whereas the Spanish "gerundio" cannot. The past participle is virtually identical to the Spanish "participio". Spanish grammars don't normally use the terms "present and past participle".
gerund: it is both a verb (in a way) and a noun, and it ends in -ing. Its best equivalent is the Spanish infinitive.
SPANISH
inifinitivo: It shares verb and noun behaviour, and it ends in -ar/-er/-ir. It sometimes is equal to the English infinitive (I like to dance), and sometimes to the gerund.
gerundio: It ends in -ndo, and it shares both verb and adverb functions. It can be translated as present participle, but it can only be used as an adjective in very few restrictive cases, whereas in English this is common (e.g. raging bull).
participio: It shares verb and adjective functions, and it ends in -do/-to. It is often trasnlated as past participle.
So I'd say that you can make "participio" equal to "past participle", but use "gerund" or "participle" (on its own) can cause a lot of confusion.
Thanks for your response! It's nice to find another grammar nut!! As I recall from English grammar, the participle is the adjectival form ("I saw him walking (participle) down the street") whereas the gerund is the noun form ("jogging (gerund) is good for the health"). So I assume "un niño llorando" would be what in English is called a participle although I don't know what it is called in Spanish. It seems the English gerund has no direct equivalent in Spanish. For example, you would not say "corriendo es saludable" but rather "es saludable correr".
Well... this is the problem we have when we use cognates to talk about two different grammars. In Spanish this form is called "gerundio", and it shouldn't really be translated as "gerund", but then, there is no equivalent in English for this form anyway. The form "dado" is called "participio", but this words cannot really be translated as "participle" neither. The solution? Use the Spanish technical words and you cannot go wrong.
By the way, my Spanish grammars written in English call it "gerund".
Actually I think it's a participle. For the gerund form Spanish seems to use the infinitive. For example, "dar a los pobres es laudable" while "Lo vi hablando con sus amigos'.
Thanks, Everyone.
Yeah. Is it conjugated from the word Dar'
It is the Spanish gerund: a non personal form of the verb "dar".
Dando is a verb. translated it means "giving"
