Infinitive and gerund in Spanish Another thing that usually confuses people is the infinitive and the gerund, in this post, you will get the key to find out when to use them.

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infinitive or gerund

First things first, you first need to know what they are,

infinitive, infinitives are the main form of the verb, the one we do not conjugate in Spanish, lets call it like the name of the verb, in English are those starting by to, like to sing is the infinitive, in Spanish are the part we use to start conjugate the verb, the one we start with, like cantar, note in Spanish infinitive itself does not goes after “a”, in English is to sing, as the two words are the infinitive.

gerund. we could could them the actions of the verbs, in English are those words ending in -ing, singing, and in Spanish ended in -ando, if the infinitive is an -AR verb, for the verb cantar would be cantando,  and in -iendo if they are -ER or -IR verbs, for comer, comiendo and for vivir, viviendo for instance.

Cool, now we got this sorted lets see when to use them.

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Usually I get a lot of students, that do not know they are using infinitive and gerund wrong in Spanish, and it is because they are following the English principles, that like most of the time dont apply to the Spanish language, that is why todays post is all about infinitive and gerund in Spanish.

 

To be honest it will take us longer and you will find is more easier to apply than you would have thought.

Infinitivo-

infinitivo

Pretty simple isnt it?

We use it

1-When it acts as the suject of the sentences, I know, too complicated isnt it?An example will help us

“Seeing is believe”, as you see…in English you used gerund, but if you speak is Spanish….meck!You need the infinitive, “Ver es creer”

2- After a preposition

“I am going to the gym after eating”, again, you would use gerund in English, in English, no in Spanish, we will say “voy al gimnasio

después de comer”

 

WATCH OUT,

In English you use gerund after at, on, in, upon etc, NO IN SPAINSH!

The same when in English you say something just happen, like “having just done something” in Spanish is Acabar de + infinitive, acabar de comer per example.

Gerund-

infinitivo (1)

 

It is as well pretty straight forward, lets see some examples.

1-Progressive tense, same like in English  like” we are studying now”,  “nosotros estamos estudiando ahora,”

2-After verbs that means “go on….-ing”,” keep…-ing”, again similar like in English, “He went on saying, ” “Continuó diciendo” or “she continued to sing”, “Siguió cantando.”

3-To say  “by doing” or “while doing” something, and WATCH OUT here, we do not need preposition, “You are going to improve by studying”, “vas a mejorar estudiando”

That is all, I tried to make it simple, I hope I succeed, anyway, if you have any question, I am always here for you, so just leave a comment and I will get back to you “asap”, “tan pronto como pueda” 🙂

HOMEWORK,

After all the test you probably did last week checking your ser  and estar knowledge (and if you did not, I leave you the link for the post so you can give it a go Ser and estar quiz ), this week I would love to practice as usual, so feel free to write a comment below and give it all this stuff you just learned a go.

Have an awesome weekend

And…practice, practice, practice, because practice makes perfection, even if it is 5 minutes a day listening a Spanish song, I will write of inspiring Spanish tunes soon, so you can listen to them, and even when you think you are not listening, the words slowly will get into your mind 🙂

 

Talk you soon

-Blanca-

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