Well..... more Gerund stuff.
Firstly, it seems to me that the main problem with the spanish gerund and its use is that you need to know when to use it.... because you only use it in certain situations and these are NOT all the same situations in which you would use it in English... and in other languages too.
In the main, TRANSLATING gerunds from Spanish into English is hardly a problem.... but the other way round leaves you having to make decisions, and do some grammar.... ouch!
For a start, you mainly use a Gerund in Spanish with or to do with VERBS.
Sometimes they describe more fully the action of a verb...
he came tumbling into the room
Annabel drove gazing at the scenery .... yep, you can use the gerund
Other times the gerund is used to indicate purpose of the action...
He rang expecting me to help him
He fired several shots, trying to kill me..... That's a gerund all right
Similarly, it can be used to show the method of carrying out the verb's action
You could really hurt me by lying about this
You are hoping to annoy me by just sitting there saying nothing.
Rather oddly, you use it to describe/qualify the OBJECT of the verb... in general, the spanish gerund isn't normally used to qualify a noun in the way we do in English
He went into the back room and saw Ethel jumping out of the window
He heard Genevieve crying in the distance
Note that both of these usages involve verbs of perception.... generally the gerund would be used when the action is ( or wasn't yet) finished... otherwise the infinitive is used.In both my examples, you can see that neither Ethel nor Genevieve has finished.
By this time you are beginning to realise what a heap of thinking has to go into all this.... those native speakers are lucky devils, eh .
The grammar books are stacked with other odd little usages, like
.. using the gerund with andar means the action of the main verb is aimless.
... as in " He goes around the house whining like a lost dog"
There's loads of dinky rules/usages like that.
What I do is, I just collect lots of sentences with gerunds in them and try to work out why they used it... which category it slips into etc.
BUT BUT BUT here's some situations where you should NOT use the gerund....
... NO... when the -ing verb is used passively ( You're not worth saving)
... NO.. .when the -ing verb sits in front of a noun.. ( writing paper)
NO... when the -ing verb is actually an adjective..( an amazing fish)
NO.. when there's a preposition in front ( this is not for shooting goats, I won't put up with frowning at the weekend) but "by" is OK for some reason.
OK... plenty for you and me to think/worry/panic about there then.
Just to add to our woes here's a thoughtful little list of sentences containing -ing words which I have borrowed from an excellent article on the scotthornbury site... try it!
So folks, what, grammatically is going on in these sentences, and in which ones would you use a gerund... and if not, what would you do ?
She remembers running up the aisle
a £17,000 flood after the royal taps were left running.
A HUSBAND and wife were convicted yesterday of running a brothel
I knew that my horse was capable of running well
We love running, so why not save on wedding cars?
Running a large application on a PC is fine
Mary waited and watched her running down the road.
Tomorrow Mr Foggerty is taking them running
there was a running battle between police and conservationists
accusations that its trains have suddenly started running late
“The only way you’re going to hurt me is by running away from me,”
The sort of things they do in the wild, running , jumping, pirouetting
What fun!! But now, to sooth the boiling brain, some smashing music which with salve those jangling brain cells and leave you gasping for more..
Having recently got the Nena Daconte CD Retales de Carnaval I'm very keen on this lovely song... cuando mueren las malditas golandrinas...
Brilliant! Love those beautiful pedal notes.They're totally blissed out singing that.The thing is, though... which way do we translate "malditas?"
Lyrics to (Cuando Mueren) Las Malditas Golondrinas :
Cada día un poco más despacio
pero sin embargo siempre vuelvo a comenzar
Después de cualquier frase bonita al oido
como cualquier aspirante desconocido,
me pongo a llorar..
Inesperada sensación la de estar sola
con tanta gente alrededor
Lo de antes, Lo de siempre, Lo de ahora
todo junto me hace delirar
A borrachera diaria se me olvida.
ESTRIBILLO
Cuando mueren las malditas golondrinas
ya no vuelven nunca a la ciudad
Los montones de momentos que pase
contigo a solas ya no volverán. (x2)
si no entiendes que en la vida necesitas
también aprender a ganar
Me dijo un caballero inglés perdido en
Buenos Aires que ahora vive en Madrid
Yo le dije al invierno que en otoño
a algunas de ellas ya las vi pasar
Desnuda por la calle en primavera
ya no hay flores que plantar.
ESTRIBILLO
Cuando mueren las malditas golondrinas
ya no vuelven nunca a la ciudad
Los montones de momentos que pase
contigo a solas ya no volverán.
Como un potro desbocado e indigente
que no ha estado y sin aire ya
alargando hasta el máximo cada suspiro
en las subidas de felicidad.
[ (Cuando Mueren) Las Malditas Golondrinas Lyrics on http://www.lyricsmania.com/ ] THANKS AGAIN FOR THESE LYRICS....
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