A Quick Guide to the Spanish Gerund

6 min read

Learn all about the Spanish gerund in this simple yet comprehensive guide. Plus, take the quiz in the end to check for understanding!

Welcome to this guide to the Spanish gerund!

The gerund is also known as the ‘continuous present,’ but don’t be put off by the weird names, all it means is verbs in the ‘-ing’ form, e.g., ‘You are learning.’

How to form the Spanish Gerund

For the vast majority of verbs, the gerund is super easy to form!

• For -ar verbs, remove the -ar and replace it with -ando.
• For -er  verbs, remove the -er and replace it with -iendo.
• For -ir verbs, remove the -ir and replace it with –iendo.

As you can see, all you have to remember is:

• -ar → -ando
• -er or –ir → -iendo

So, let’s look at some examples.

• Nadar (to swim) → estoy nadando (I’m swimming)
• Coser (to sew) → estoy cosiendo (I’m sewing)
• Escribir (to write) → estoy escribiendo (I’m writing)

When to use the Spanish Gerund

We use the gerund in Spanish when we want to say that something is happening. We usually need to use the verb estar (to be) with it. It’s like in English: you wouldn’t say, ‘He swimming.’ You’d say, ‘He is swimming.’

So here’s how to conjugate estar in the present tense, to say that something is happening—it’s in progress right now:

Examples:

• Shut up, I’m talking!Cállate, que estoy hablando.
• He says he’s vegan but he’s eating a hamburger.Dice que es vegano pero está comiendo una hamburguesa.
• They are dancing.Están bailando*.

* Speaking of ‘bailando,’ there are a few gerunds to listen out for in the chorus of the famous Enrique Iglesias song. Try and listen out for them!

Here’s how to conjugate estar in the imperfect tense (a version of the past tense), to say that something was happening.

• You were singing my favorite song.Estabas cantando mi canción preferida.
• Juan and I were dating.Juan y yo estábamos saliendo.
• You were all studying a lot.Estabais estudiando mucho.

You won’t use this one as much, but learning how to conjugate estar in the future tense will also allow you to say that something will be happening at some point in the future.

*See here for how to use the future tense to make suppositions!

So, using these three conjugation tables and the verb endings described above, we can form a whole load of phrases with the gerund.

Examples:

• I’m waiting.Estoy esperando.
• You are sweating.Estás sudando.
• Gabriel is selling his books to that lady.Gabriel está vendiendo sus libros a esa señora.
• We were cooking.Estábamos cocinando.
• You guys were painting.Estabais pintando.
• The athletes will be running soon.Los atletas estarán corriendo prontito.

There are another few cool ways the gerund can be used, when you DON’T need estar.

Firstly, when you’re using it with a verb of motion:

• I left running. (I ran away.)Salí corriendo.
• He came in complaining.Entró quejándose.
• He goes around singing all day.Anda cantando todo el día.

Secondly, to mean ‘by -ing’:

Thirdly, it can be used in a ‘by the way’ sense:

• Speaking of Juan, did you know…?Hablando de Juan, ¿sabías que…?

When NOT to use the Spanish Gerund

As mentioned above, -ando and -iendo roughly translate to ‘-ing.’ But watch out for some common traps!

• In English, we’d use the present continuous (‘-ing’) to say we like doing something. In Spanish you don’t need to do this. Just leave the verb in the infinitive.

• In English, we’d use ‘-ing’ to say that an activity is important, easy, hard, etc. In Spanish, use the infinitive.

• In English, we’d use ‘-ing’ to describe states (not just actions). Again, in Spanish, this isn’t necessary.

Irregular verbs

Yes, you guessed it, there are some exceptions to the rules that we went through above.

1. There are some -ir and -er verbs whose stems end in a vowel. If this is the case, the -iendo becomes –yendo. These examples should help demonstrate:

1. There’s a type of verb called stem-changing verbs, because their stems sometimes change. They’re also referred to as radical-changing verbs, which, frankly, I think is a better name for them.

Sometimes radical-changing verbs also change in the gerund. Here’s a handy table of some of the common ones:

3. Here are some other common ones that we haven’t covered in rules 1 and 2.

Let’s get quizzical!

There’s been a lot here to take in, so, if you fancy it, have a go at these multiple-choice questions and see how well you can do!

Well done!

I hope you’ve learnt something from this lesson on the gerund, and definitely don’t worry if you haven’t taken in every single thing! Keep practicing a little every day, and you’ll soon be using the gerund in Spanish.

Want some help in conjugating Spanish verbs? Try these audio drills!