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Using the gerund in Spanish | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| fiziwig Senior Member United States Joined 4652 days ago 297 posts - 618 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 1 of 12 09 December 2011 at 7:05pm | IP Logged | ||
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The English present tense tends to be expressed with a gerund as a present continuous. We don't say things like "I go to the store." or "I learn Spanish." Instead, we use the gerund and say "I am going to the store." or "I am learning Spanish."
Also in English there is really only one way we ever express the past imperfect, and that is also with the gerund: "I was learning Spanish." or "I was reading a book when suddenly..." So in Spanish, when do I know whether to use one or the other form? When do I say "Aprendo Español" and when do I say "Estoy aprediendo Español."? As for the past imperfect, when do I say "Yo aprendía..." and when do I say "Yo estaba aprendiendo..."? They both apparently translate into English as "I was learning...". I remember reading somewhere (I don't recall where) that beginning Spanish students over-use the gerund. So is there a rule? and what is that rule? Thanks for any insights. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 5798 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 2 of 12 09 December 2011 at 8:45pm | IP Logged | ||
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I was told never to say "aprendo español" because learning is supposed to be a passing state -- I expect to stop, so it's not considered habitual, meaning it has to "estoy aprendiendo".
You can't literally translate "I'm doing it tomorrow" -- it's more like "I do it tomorrow". I'm not sure of the difference between "yo aprendía" and "yo estaba aprendiendo" though.... 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| July Diglot Senior Member Spain Joined 5060 days ago 113 posts - 208 votes Speaks: English*, SpanishB2 Studies: French | Message 3 of 12 09 December 2011 at 10:04pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'm not sure, but I'd guess that "yo aprendía" is more like 'I would learn/was learning
Spanish (all that year/everyday during summer, etc)' while "yo estaba aprendiendo" is more like 'I was learning Spanish (when my house caught fire)'. But perhaps it's not that different. Someone native want to clarify? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6696 days ago 4250 posts - 5710 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 4 of 12 10 December 2011 at 12:22am | IP Logged | ||
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I've always treated the tenses like July above:
Imperfect is more habitual and gerund somewhat punctual/interrupted/background informative To me, the examples are something like: Yo aprendía español cuanda era chico. (...when I was a kid) Yo estaba aprendiendo español cuando mi amigo llamó (when my friend rang). "Do not overuse the progressive tenses, since they are used far less frequently in Spanish than in English, and do not use them unless you are portraying an action as truly being in progress." http://users.ipfw.edu/jehle/courses/gerund.htm I've seen English speakers overuse the gerund in German and Swedish as well (Ich bin lernen Deutsch/Jag är lärande svenska). 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Camundonguinho Triglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 4536 days ago 273 posts - 500 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, English, Spanish Studies: Swedish | Message 5 of 12 11 December 2011 at 10:51am | IP Logged | ||
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According to the Spanish grammar by Butt & Benjamin, the continuous tenses are as used in Peninsular Spanish as they are in English (in Latin American Spanish they are much less used).
So, when you see rain falling down, looking through the window, you say It's raining (It rains would be archaic and very poetic at best). In Spain: Está lloviendo (normal) - Llueve (very formal or poetic). There are exceptions to the rule, so Spanish people say ''voy al mercado'' instead of ''estoy yendo'' (this is shared with Portuguese: eu vou agora; and not estou indo). Furthermore, some fixed phrases like: Qué haces (Qué estás haciendo also used) and Quien habla? but these are more exceptions to the rule. So, for peninsular Spanish (just like for Brazlian Portuguese), feel free to use the continuous tenses whenever you like. It is simple tenses that can sound formal and poetic (Llueve for Está lloviendo). Edited by Camundonguinho on 11 December 2011 at 10:55am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tractor Tetraglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5240 days ago 1349 posts - 2292 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, Catalan Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 6 of 12 11 December 2011 at 12:26pm | IP Logged | ||
Let me quote from the 3rd edition: "Spanish continuous forms, e.g. esto leyendo, estaban hablando, etc. misleadingly resemble the much-used English progressive verb form, e.g. 'I'm reading', 'they were talking'. The Spanish continuous differs from its English counterpart in several important respects: […] Written – or at least printed – Latin American Spanish seems to obey the same rules as European Spanish as far as the use of the continuous is concerned. However, there are numerous regional variants in colloquial usage and it seems, in general, that the continuous is used more extensively in Latin-American speech than in Spain." Edited by tractor on 11 December 2011 at 12:29pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 5798 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 7 of 12 11 December 2011 at 1:26pm | IP Logged | ||
That's what I was going to say, but when I checked my grammar book (Routledge's Modern Spanish Grammar, by Juan Kattan-Ibara and Christopher J Pountain) I couldn't see anything to support that claim. In fact, I only found examples of interrupted action using the plain imperfect, not the imperfect + continuous. I'm confused now.... 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5049 days ago 2237 posts - 6731 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 8 of 12 11 December 2011 at 2:45pm | IP Logged | ||
As a non-native speaker of Spanish, this is an example of why I don't comment on Spanish grammar questions. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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