Spanish: An Essential Grammar

Viene quejándose de su mala He’s been complaining about his

salud. ill health.

Vienen diciendo eso desde They’ve been saying that for

hace años. years.

Pasar + gerund

With the verb pasarthe gerund is used to indicate how time is spent:

Pasó la tarde durmiendo. He spent the afternoon sleeping.

Seguir and continuar + gerund

Only the gerund can be used with these verbs to express ‘to continue to

do’ or ‘to carry on doing’:

Seguimos/Continuamos We carried on talking.

hablando.

Acabar and terminar + gerund

These combinations express the idea of ‘ending up doing’:

Siempre acaban peleándose. They always end up quarrelling.

Terminarás rompiéndolo. You’ll end up breaking it.

Salir + gerund

Depending on the verb that adopts the gerund form, this sequence has a

variety of meanings:

Fue Ignacio quien salió It was Ignacio who came off

perdiendo. worst.

Salieron volando. They were off like a shot.

Cases where the gerund is not used

There are a number of common situations in which English uses words

ending in ‘-ing’ that cannotbe translated by a Spanish gerund.

18.5

18.4.6

18.4.5

18.4.4

18.4.3

1111

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

1011

1

12111

3 4 5 6 7 8 9

20111

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

30111

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

40

41111

18

Uses of the
gerund

200