How to Form Gerunds in Spanish

Gerunds in Spanish play a vital role in expressing ongoing actions and are commonly used in everyday conversation. Just like in English, where verbs like walking or eating describe continuous actions, Spanish uses the gerund to convey the same meaning. However, forming gerunds in Spanish follows its own set of rules that differ slightly depending on whether the verb is regular or irregular.

In this article, we’ll explore the step-by-step process of how to form gerunds in Spanish, provide examples of both regular and irregular verbs, and offer tips to help you avoid common mistakes along the way. Whether you’re just starting out or looking to refine your skills, mastering gerunds is an essential part of achieving fluency in Spanish.

How to Form Gerunds in Spanish

In this article, we’ll explore how to form gerunds in Spanish, an essential aspect of expressing ongoing actions. Gerunds are created by modifying the verb endings, with regular –ar verbs taking the suffix –ando (e.g., hablar becomes hablando) and regular –er and –ir verbs taking the suffix –iendo (e.g., comer becomes comiendo and vivir becomes viviendo). We’ll also discuss how irregular verbs undergo slight changes when forming gerunds, such as leer becoming leyendo. Additionally, we’ll offer helpful tips for correctly forming gerunds in Spanish.

We’ll only write the example sentences using estar + gerund in this article. While gerunds have other uses, our focus here will be on how to form gerunds in Spanish, rather than when to use them.

Regular Gerunds in Spanish

Regular gerunds are formed replacing the ending of the infinitive by –ando for –ar verbs and –iendo for –er / –ir verbs.

Here are some examples of regular gerunds in Spanish.

Irregular Gerunds in Spanish

Understanding how to form gerunds in Spanish is key to mastering them. There are three types of irregular gerunds in Spanish. Let’s take a closer look at how they are formed, so you can see the specific patterns and rules that apply to irregular verbs.

Stem ending with a vowel

When the verb stem ends with a vowel, you should add –yendo to form the gerund.

Vowel change O>U

Notice that the verbs poder (can), dormir (to sleep) and morir (to die) have a vowel change o>u in their gerundio.

Vowel change E>I

Other verbs change the e in their stem for an i. Here are some common ones:

Exercises

Let’s take some time to practice how to form gerunds in Spanish with the following exercises. By working through these examples, you’ll get hands-on experience with the rules for transforming regular and irregular verbs into their gerund forms. Remember that mastering how to form gerunds in Spanish is an essential step toward using them naturally in everyday conversations.