The Gerund as an Adverb, and the -ing Traps

The Spanish gerund is the verb form ending in - (for -ar verbs) or -iendo (for -er and - verbs): , , . It looks like the English "-ing", and that resemblance is a trap, because English "-ing" does far more jobs than the Spanish gerund is allowed to do.

At its core, the Spanish gerund is an adverb. It describes how, or by what means, another action happens - or it names a second action going on at the same time. That is nearly the whole of its independent life. Everything English does with "-ing" that is not adverbial - subjects, objects, things after prepositions, adjectives before nouns - Spanish does with a different form, usually the infinitive. This page is not about + gerundio, the present progressive; that has its own page. Here we cover the gerund standing on its own, and the mistakes English speakers import.

The gerund as an adverb of manner and means

This is the gerund doing its proper job. It tells you how the main verb happens:

. (He ran out - literally "he went out running".)
. (She arrived singing.)
. (He came in shouting.)
. (She answered with a smile / smiling.)

Or it tells you by what means something is achieved:

. (I learn by listening to music.)
. (He got rich by working hard.)
. (She passed by studying every night.)

A quick test: if the English "-ing" could be rephrased as "by doing X" or "while doing X", the Spanish gerund is usually right. = "I learn by listening". Good.

The gerund with verbs of motion and continuation

The gerund also pairs with a small family of verbs to say an action keeps going or unfolds gradually. These are worth memorising as a set:

/ + gerund - to keep on doing: . (It's still raining.) . (He carried on talking.)
+ gerund - to do something gradually: . (It's slowly getting better.) . (I'm gradually getting the hang of it.)
+ gerund - to have been doing (building up over time): diciéndolo . (I've been saying it for years.)
+ gerund - to go around doing (often with a hint of disapproval): . (He's going around looking for work.)

These all share the same logic as + gerundio: a live verb plus the gerund to colour the action as ongoing. The difference is the flavour each helper verb adds - continuation, gradual change, accumulation.

The three traps: where -ing is NOT the gerund

Now the mistakes. English "-ing" reaches into three areas the Spanish gerund is banned from. In all three, Spanish uses the infinitive or rewrites with a relative clause.

1. Not as a noun or subject - use the infinitive

When "-ing" is the subject or names an activity, English is treating it as a noun. Spanish uses the infinitive for that, never the gerund:

. (Smoking is bad.) - never fumando es malo.
. (Seeing is believing.)
Me . (I like cooking.)
. (Swimming is good exercise.)

Rule of thumb: if you could put "the" in front of the English word - the smoking, the learning - it is a noun, so Spanish wants the infinitive. This is where the gerund and the many uses of the infinitive part company.

2. Not after a preposition - use the infinitive

After any preposition (, , sin, , , , ...), Spanish uses the infinitive. English puts "-ing" here; Spanish does not:

(before leaving) - never antes de saliendo.
(after eating).
sin (without saying anything).
(in order to learn).

If a preposition sits in front, the next verb is an infinitive. No exceptions.

3. Not as an adjective describing a noun - use que + verb

English lets "-ing" modify a noun directly: a box containing books, a man carrying a bag. Spanish rewrites this with a relative clause ( + a conjugated verb):

contiene (a box containing books) - never una caja conteniendo libros.
(a man carrying a suitcase).
(a letter explaining everything).

The only real exceptions are two frozen adjectives: (burning) and hirviendo (boiling), as in hirviendo (boiling water) and (a burning house). Learn those two as idioms and invent no others.

DO and DON'T at a glance

Job	English "-ing"	Spanish	Example
How / by what means (adverb)	he left running	gerund	salió
Keep on / gradually doing	it's still raining	gerund	sigue
Subject / activity (noun)	smoking is bad	infinitive	es malo
After a preposition	before leaving	infinitive	antes de
Describing a noun (adjective)	a box containing	+ verb	una caja contiene
(Idiom only) burning / boiling	boiling water	frozen gerund	agua hirviendo

Forming the gerund

The endings, so you can build any of the above:

Verb type	Ending	Example
-ar	-	hablar → habl
-er	-iendo	comer → comiendo
-	-iendo	vivir → viviendo

Two irregular groups:

The y-spelling. When an -er or - stem ends in a vowel, -iendo becomes - to stop an i stranding between vowels: → , → , → , → .
Stem-changing - verbs. The e becomes i and the o becomes u: → , → , → , → , → .

Common mistakes English speakers make

Using the gerund as a subject. Fumando es malo is the classic error. It is - the infinitive does noun jobs.

Putting the gerund after a preposition. Sin diciendo, antes de saliendo and después de comiendo are all wrong. Preposition plus infinitive: sin , , .

Hanging the gerund off a noun like an adjective. Una caja conteniendo libros has to become contiene . Rewrite with and a conjugated verb.

Regularising the irregular gerunds. Leiendo, dormiendo and pidiendo feel right by analogy but are wrong: , , .

The present progressive: estar + gerundio - the gerund's other big job, and why Spanish uses it far less than English uses "-ing".
The uses of the infinitive - the form that does the noun jobs the gerund cannot: subjects, objects, and everything after a preposition.
Word order in Spanish - where the gerund and its helper verb sit in the sentence.
The Spanish grammar cheatsheet has the gerund endings and the DO/DON'T list on one card.

Practise: test yourself

Fill in the blank

0/8

Choose the gerund or the infinitive. If the verb describes HOW or BY WHAT MEANS the action happens, use the gerund; if it is a subject, follows a preposition, or names an activity, use the infinitive.

Salió de la casa. (correr - he ran out) (manner: how he left)
es malo para la salud. (fumar - smoking is bad) (subject: use the infinitive)
Aprendo mucho música. (escuchar - by listening) (means: by what method)
Antes de , apaga la luz. (salir - before leaving) (after a preposition)
El bebé se durmió . (llorar - crying) (simultaneous action)
Se fue sin nada. (decir - without saying) (after sin)
Está un libro sobre historia. (leer - reading, vowel stem) (leer takes -yendo)
El cliente entró la cuenta. (pedir - asking for, stem-change) (pedir stem e to i)

Pick the right one

0/6

One option is the gerund, the other the infinitive. Pick the form Spanish actually uses in each sentence.

Me gusta por las mañanas. (I like running)
Llegó a la fiesta. (she arrived singing)
Una caja que libros. (a box containing books)
Después de , salimos. (after eating we left)
Sigue fuera. (it's still raining)
es creer. (seeing is believing)

Frequently asked questions

What does the Spanish gerund actually mean on its own?

Used by itself, the gerund is an adverb of manner or means: it answers 'how?' or 'by what method?'. Salió corriendo is 'he left running', that is, he ran out; llegó cantando is 'she arrived singing'; aprendo escuchando música is 'I learn by listening to music'. The gerund describes the way the main verb happens, or a second action going on at the same time. It never behaves like a noun. If in English you could swap the '-ing' word for 'by doing X' or 'while doing X', the Spanish gerund is usually right; if you could swap it for 'the act of X-ing', you need the infinitive instead.

Why is fumando es malo wrong when English says smoking is bad?

Because in that English sentence 'smoking' is a noun - the subject of the verb. Spanish never uses the gerund as a noun or subject. The verb form that works as a noun in Spanish is the infinitive, so the correct sentence is fumar es malo, literally 'to smoke is bad'. The same holds anywhere the '-ing' word is doing a noun's job: ver es creer (seeing is believing), me gusta cocinar (I like cooking). Whenever you would put 'the' in front of the English '-ing' - the smoking, the learning - reach for the Spanish infinitive, not the gerund.

Can you use the gerund after a preposition in Spanish, like after leaving?

No. This is one of the cleanest rules in the language: after a preposition (de, en, sin, antes de, después de, para, por and the rest) Spanish uses the infinitive, never the gerund. 'Before leaving' is antes de salir, not antes de saliendo; 'without saying anything' is sin decir nada, not sin diciendo; 'after eating' is después de comer. English '-ing' happily follows prepositions, which is exactly why learners get this wrong. If a preposition sits in front, the verb that follows must be an infinitive.

How do you turn una caja conteniendo libros into correct Spanish?

You cannot use the gerund as an adjective describing a noun, so 'a box containing books' is not una caja conteniendo libros. Spanish uses a relative clause: una caja que contiene libros, 'a box that contains books'. English lets '-ing' modify a noun directly (a man carrying a bag, water boiling); Spanish rewrites it with que plus a conjugated verb: un hombre que lleva una bolsa. There are two frozen exceptions that behave like true adjectives - ardiendo (burning) and hirviendo (boiling), as in agua hirviendo, 'boiling water' - but treat them as memorised idioms, not a licence to invent more.