Present Participles
Start first lessonExplanation
Present participles in Spanish are verb forms used to express continuous or ongoing actions. Spanish present participles end in -ndo, which is the equivalent of the English ending -ing.
Check out the present participles in the examples below.
A Note on the Term Gerund
- In Spanish, the verb form that ends in -ndo is called the gerundio. It is used in compound verb forms, such as Estoy nadando. (I'm swimming.), as well as adverbially, as in Salió corriendo. (literally, He left running.)
- In English, a gerund is the noun form of a verb, such as swimming in the sentence Swimming is fun. (Es divertido nadar.). In Spanish, this form is translated using an infinitive verb, such as nadar.
- The term used for the -ing form used in compound verbs in English is the present participle.
How to Form Regular Spanish Gerundios
To form the gerundio of regular verbs, most of the time you just drop the infinitive ending (-ar, -er, -ir) and add -ando to the stem of -ar verbs and -iendo to the stem of -er and -ir verbs. Check out the table below to see how to form gerundios.
| Verb Type | Infinitive Example | Stem Example | Gerundio Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| -ar verb | hablar | habl- | hablando |
| -er verb | tener | ten- | teniendo |
| -ir verb | vivir | viv- | viviendo |
Stem? I thought we were talking about verbs, not plants.
In Spanish grammar lingo, a stem is the verb form you're left with if you take the -ar, -er or -ir away from the end of an infinitive.
Example: The stem of hablar is habl-.
Gerundios that March to a Different Beat
There are also several types of gerundios that don't follow the above rules. Let's learn about them now!
1. -Yendo
If the stem of an -er or -ir verb ends in a vowel, -iendo becomes -yendo. Check out the examples below.
Pro tip: whenever an unstressed i appears between two vowels, the spelling always changes to a y.
2. Irregular Ir
Ir(to go) is an irregular verb, and does not follow the pattern above. For pronunciation reasons, the gerundio of ir is yendo.
3. -Endo
If the stem of an -er or -ir verb ends in -ll or -ñ, -iendo becomes -endo.
4. Stem-Changing Present Participles
There are also some verbs that need a stem change before adding the gerundio ending to maintain pronunciation:
- Any -ir verb that has a stem change in the third person preterite (e > i, or o>u) will have the same stem change in the gerundio. The -er verb poderalso maintains its preterite stem change in the gerundio.
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