Learn how to form the Spanish gerund form
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Dylan: Hola, hola a todos. Habla Dylan, ¿cómo están? |
| Carlos: What’s going on, pod101 world? My name is Carlos. In this lesson, you will learn about the gerund with the verb “cantar”. |
| Dylan: This conversation takes place in a bar. |
| Carlos: This conversation is between Rodri, Juanca, Lau and the people. |
| Dylan: The speakers are friends, so they will be speaking informally. |
| Carlos: Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| RODRI: Lau, la gente está muy emocionada porque hoy nuestra selección de fútbol se enfrenta a nuestro más fuerte rival, México. |
| JUANCA: Sí. Y hoy deciden cuál de los dos equipos va al mundial de fútbol. |
| LAU: ¡Qué bueno! ¡Espero que ganemos! |
| RODRI: Escucha a la gente, está cantando en coro la canción de nuestra selección. |
| GENTE: Oe,oe,oe,oe…, TICOS, TICOS, Oe,oe,oe,oe…, TICOS, TICOS… |
| JUANCA: Lau, canta. ¡Vamos, vamos equipo, esta noche, tenemos que ganar…! |
| Rodri: Lau, the people are very excited because today, our football team faces our strongest rival, Mexico. |
| Juanca: Yes, and today they decide which of the two teams goes to the World Cup. |
| Lau: That's great! I hope we win! |
| Rodri: Listen to the people, they're all singing the team song. |
| Gente: Oe,oe,oe,oe…, TICOS, TICOS, Oe,oe,oe,oe…, TICOS, TICOS… |
| Juanca: Lau, sing! Come on, come on team, tonight we've got to wiiiiinnn. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Carlos: So is this an accurate scene of a bar during a soccer match, Dylan? |
| Dylan: Absolutely, Carlos. |
| Carlos: Now what are you missing? I’m thinking about you know, beer being thrown all over the place, you know. And would rival teams be watching the same game in the bar? |
| Dylan: Yes, there would be sections for in this case, the Mexican fans and the Costa Rican fans. Of course, the Costa Ricans would outnumber the Mexicans. |
| Carlos: I don’t think there’d be a lot of Mexican fans in Costa Rica would there? |
| Dylan: Hey, there could be, Mexico is a great team. |
| Carlos: Oh yeah, I know. But I will also say that you know, they are not crazy like the Italians were. The people would be attacking each other over soccer. |
| Dylan: No, no, no. Not in this peaceful country, no. |
| Carlos: That’s right. Okay guys, let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Dylan: “Emocionado, emocionada”. |
| Carlos: “Excited”, “touched”, “moved.” |
| Dylan: “E-mo-cio-na-do, e-mo-cio-na-da”, “emocionado, emocionada”. |
| Dylan: “Enfrentar”. |
| Carlos: “To face.” |
| Dylan: “En-fren-tar”, “enfrentar”. |
| Dylan: “Decidir”. |
| Carlos: “To decide.” |
| Dylan: “De-ci-dir”, “decidir”. |
| Dylan: “Ganar”. |
| Carlos: “To win”, “to earn”, “to gain.” |
| Dylan: “Ga-nar”, “ganar”. |
| Dylan: “Cantar”. |
| Carlos: “To sing.” |
| Dylan: “Can-tar”, “cantar”. |
| Dylan: “Coro”. |
| Carlos: “Choir”, “chorus.” |
| Dylan: “Co-ro”, “coro”. |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Carlos: Okay guys, let’s have a look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Dylan: The first word we’ll look at is “emocionado, emocionada”. |
| Carlos: I’m so excited! And I just can’t hide it! |
| Dylan: Carlos, Carlos, Carlos, are you okay? |
| Carlos: Well, sometimes when you have a bad week, it helps to act happy. |
| Dylan: Well I guess, but you have a lot of things to be “emocionado” about. |
| Carlos: I know, you always need to try and focus on what you have and not on what you are lacking. |
| Dylan: Especially if it is money. |
| Carlos: Huh! How’d you know? You know what, what can I say, money comes in then it goes more goes. Anyway, what do we know about this adjective? |
| Dylan: “Emocionado, emocionada” is overwhelmingly positive. |
| Carlos: Oh yeah?! |
| Dylan: Yes, it means “excited”, “touched”, “moved”! |
| Carlos: You are right. Those are all very good things. Wait, wait, that’s right. They are watching a soccer match in a bar. |
| Dylan: Yes. |
| Carlos: So “están emocionados todos”. |
| Dylan: “They are all excited” Let’s listen to how “emocionado, emocionada” is used in the conversation. |
| Carlos: “La gente está muy emocionada porque hoy nuestra selección de fútbol se enfrenta a nuestro más fuerte rival, México”. |
| Dylan: “The people are very excited because today our football team faces our strongest rival, Mexico.” That was a long example. |
| Carlos: Yes, maybe we should have kept it at “la gente está muy emocionada”. |
| Dylan: You already gave us a sample sentence but how about another one? |
| Carlos: “Luis está muy emocionado por el paseo a la playa”. |
| Dylan: “Luis is very excited about the trip to the beach.” |
| Carlos: But, how about some related words, Dylan? |
| Dylan: “La emoción”, “the excitement” or “ser emocionante”, “to be excited.” |
| Carlos: That was a good first word to have, it put me in a good mood for the rest of the lesson. |
| Dylan: Good! So then, moving on we have “enfrentar”, ”to face.” |
| Carlos: I can see that, “enfrentar”. Kind of reminds me of “in front.” |
| Dylan: That’s an easy enough association. |
| Carlos: Luckily, but I was so excited about the first word I already used this vocabulary word in a sample sentence. |
| Dylan: Right, you did it once, you may as well just do it again. |
| Carlos: “La gente está muy emocionada porque hoy nuestra selección de fútbol se enfrenta a nuestro más fuerte rival, México”. |
| Dylan: “The people are very excited because today our football team faces our strongest rival, Mexico.” |
| Carlos: Let me think. I know, I have a biblical reference for another sample sentence. |
| Dylan: And what’s that? |
| Carlos: “David se enfrentó a Goliath”. |
| Dylan: Close. |
| Carlos: What do you mean? |
| Dylan: Well in Spanish it’s “Goliat”. |
| Carlos: Aaah, okay. So “David se enfrentó a Goliat”. |
| Dylan: “David faced Goliath.” Good. |
| Carlos: But this is actually a new verb for me. |
| Dylan: Oh, yes? |
| Carlos: Yes, and so I’m not too sure about a related word. |
| Dylan: “El enfrentamiento”. |
| Carlos: And what does that mean? |
| Dylan: “El enfrentamiento” is “the confrontation.” |
| Carlos: Sounds ominous. |
| Dylan: I think it’s supposed to. You know how Costa Ricans are, we are a peace loving country so there aren’t many confrontations, but I will say, there have been more and more “enfrentamientos” in recent years. |
| Carlos: I read about them all the time. |
| Dylan: But don’t let that stop you from visiting audience, Costa Rica is still very safe. |
| Carlos: During the day. |
| Dylan: [Laughter] |
| Carlos: At times it is. |
| Dylan: Next up, “decidir”. |
| Carlos: “Decidir”, “to decide.” |
| Dylan: And here we have a very important decision. |
| Carlos: Oh, yes? |
| Dylan: Yes. Didn’t you listen to the conversation? “Sí. Y hoy deciden cuál de los dos equipos va al mundial de fútbol”. |
| Carlos: “Yes and today they decide which of the two teams goes to the World Cup.” |
| Dylan: And trust us, down here, that is “una decisión muy importante”. |
| Carlos: “A very important decision.” Hey that would have been our related word! |
| Dylan: It still counts. |
| Carlos: Well, what about our sample sentence? |
| Dylan: “María decidió no ir a la playa este fin de semana”. |
| Carlos: “María decided not to go to the beach this weekend.” |
| Dylan: Do you know what to call someone when they make a lot of decisions quickly? |
| Carlos: No. What? |
| Dylan: “Decisivo, decisiva”. |
| Carlos: I’m guessing, “decisive”? |
| Dylan: Exactly. |
| Carlos: And what’s next? |
| Dylan: Something we all want to do, “ganar”. |
| Carlos: “To win”, “to earn”, “to gain.” Yes, I would agree with that summation. Every one usually wants to do those things. |
| Dylan: And Lau is falling right in with the crowd. |
| Carlos: Oh yes? How? |
| Dylan: Listen to her! “¡espero que ganemos!” |
| Carlos: “I hope we win.” Yes she’s being a good “tica”. |
| Dylan: Now using “ganar”, “to win”, is very common, but so is using it “to earn.” |
| Carlos: Right. “Yo gano suficiente plata para vivir cómodo en Costa Rica”. “I earn enough money to live comfortably in Costa Rica.” |
| Dylan: I should hope so. |
| Carlos: Wait, how do you say “winner”? |
| Dylan: “El ganador”. |
| Carlos: That would be masculine. |
| Dylan: “La ganadora”. |
| Carlos: And that would be feminine. |
| Dylan: Next up is one of your favorite verbs. |
| Carlos: Which? |
| Dylan: “Cantar”, “to sing.” |
| Carlos: Only in my shower. |
| Dylan: Don’t lie Carlos, I saw you driving one day and you were belting it out! With the windows closed. |
| Carlos: Man, didn’t know anybody was watching. |
| Dylan: I know, that’s the point. |
| Carlos: So where do we hear “cantar” in today’s conversation? |
| Dylan: We heard “escucha a la gente, está cantando en coro la canción de nuestra selección”. |
| Carlos: “Listen to the people, they are all singing the team’s song.” |
| Dylan: When do you like to sing the most? |
| Carlos: A mi me gusta cantar en el karaoke. It’s a release. |
| Dylan: I bet it is. |
| Carlos: And once again, I know a related word, ”el cantante”. Although I have to say that singing Hector Lavoe’s song in karaoke is almost as hard as doing a Marc Anthony song. You have to have the voice for it. |
| Dylan: That is so true. |
| Carlos: Oh and let’s throw out the word “canción” as well. |
| Dylan: Last but not least, “coro”. |
| Carlos: “Coro”. I will admit that that word is kind of completely new to me. |
| Dylan: “Coro” is a noun that means “choir” or “chorus.” |
| Carlos: “Coro”, “choir”, “chorus.” I can hear that with the pronunciation but not the spelling so much. |
| Dylan: Well, we already heard the example from the conversation. |
| Carlos: Right. “Escucha a la gente, está cantando en coro”. |
| Dylan: “Listen to the people, they are all singing the team song and chorus.” |
| Carlos: That’s always a nice experience. Singing a song like that with a bunch of people. The last time we did that was in New York, we were all in a bar singing Piano man. |
| Dylan: Wow, that is such a nice song. |
| Carlos: That is a really nice song. Especially when you are with your friends. [Sings] It’s a good one. Now Dylan, does your family go to church? |
| Dylan: My immediate family, no but... tengo una amiga que canta en el coro de la iglesia. |
| Carlos: You have a friend that sings in the church's choir. Does she have a good voice? |
| Dylan: Not really, she isn’t what you would call a soloist. |
| Carlos: I see. Now Dylan, since this word is so new to me, I’m really going to need your help with a related word. |
| Dylan: The related word here is “coral”. |
| Carlos: Like the stuff in the water? |
| Dylan: Yes, but “coral” is a synonym and also means “chorus” or “choir.” |
| Carlos: Nice. I like it when we get two for the price of one. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Dylan: Now in this lesson, we heard a very happy gerund. |
| Carlos: That’s right we did. |
| Dylan: And what was it? |
| Carlos: “Escucha a la gente, está cantando en coro la canción de nuestra selección”. |
| Dylan: “Listen to the people, they are all singing the team song.” To review Carlos, what is the gerund? |
| Carlos: “El gerundio”? “The gerund”, functions as an adverb. And we use it to express simultaneous or continuous action. |
| Dylan: Correct and what about endings? |
| Carlos: Well, for “ar” verbs, that will be “-ando” after the stem of regular “ar” verbs and for “er” verbs you put “-iendo” ending after the stem of regular “er” and “ir” verbs. |
| Dylan: And which verb do we have here? |
| Carlos: A regular “ar” verb “cantar” which becomes “cantando”, “singing.” |
| Dylan: Let’s check out some formation. |
| Carlos: Singular first. |
| Dylan: “Yo estoy cantando”. |
| Carlos: “I am singing.” |
| Dylan: “Tú estás cantando”. |
| Carlos: “You are singing”, informal. |
| Dylan: “Él/ella/usted está cantando”. |
| Carlos: “He/she/you, formal, is singing.” |
| Dylan: That took care of the singular. Now let’s dive into the plural. “Nosotros estamos cantando”. |
| Carlos: “We are singing.” |
| Dylan: “Vosotros estáis cantando”. |
| Carlos: “You are all singing”, informal. |
| Dylan: “Ellos/ellas/ustedes están cantando”. |
| Carlos: “They (masculine), they (feminine) and you all (formal) are singing.” Dylan, let’s check some sample sentences. Throw them out to me. |
| Dylan: “Los niños están cantando canciones de Navidad”. |
| Carlos: “The children are singing Christmas songs.” |
| Dylan: “A ti te gusta cantar en las fiestas”. |
| Carlos: “You like to sing at the parties.” |
| Dylan: “Te vi cantando en el carro”. |
| Carlos: “I saw you singing in the car.” |
| Dylan: “Por favor, no cantes más”. |
| Carlos: “Please, don’t sing anymore.” |
| Dylan: “Estás cantando muy fuerte”. |
| Carlos: “You are singing very loud.” |
| Dylan: The present plus the gerund construction in Spanish expresses something that is happening right now. For example, “estoy estudiando”, meaning “I am studying”, as opposed to something that is done habitually. |
| Carlos: Note that the gerund form is the same for all the conjugations of the “estar” above. Also consider that we could replace the verb “estar” with another verb, por ejemplo, “sigo llamando” meaning “I keep calling.” |
| Dylan: But for this lesson, we have focused on construction with “estar”. |
| Carlos: We can also use this construction with verbs that end in “er” such as “comer”, “to eat”, and “ir” such as “venir”, “to come.” Verbs that end in “er” or “ir” that use “-iendo” instead of “-ando” to construct the gerund form. |
| Dylan: So really, all you need to learn for the gerund are two endings. |
Outro |
| Carlos: “-ando”, “-iendo”. Makes it easy enough. Okay guys, you know what? That just about does it for today. |
| Dylan: ¡Hasta luego! |
| Carlos: Nos vemos, ¡chao! |
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