Gerund vs present continuousHi. I'm a big fan of this site, for many reasons, so I am pointing this out in a spirit of collaboration, not criticism: I think this page should refer to "present continuous" and "present participles", not gerunds.
The gerund is a form, derived from a verb, which ends in --ing, but it is the noun from the verb. This page is all about an alternative verb form.
For example: "Smoking is bad for you."
"Smoking" is a gerund, as it has become a noun.
"That man is smoking" is the present continuous form of the verb. "Smoking" in this sentence is the present participle, i.e. not a gerund.
I am prepared to accept that this might be a US/UK English thing; I'd be very interested to hear if this were the case.
Best wishes
Andrew Wenger
In the test, we are asked to translate 'Also, Ken Follet used it (to write his literary works)'. At first, I translated it as 'Ken Follet la usa', but then I noticed I was being specifically asked to construct a sentence using 'se'. Assuming a passive sentence was required, I put 'Además, se usó por Ken Follet', but was corrected with 'Además, Ken Follet la usó'. Surely, there is something not quite right here?
Why does the use the preterite perfect rather than the simple preterite?
In the example Nosotros podemos salir antes del trabajo temprano hoy, wouldn't it mean the same thing to say Nosotros podemos salir del trabajo temprano hoy.
En la frase, "que si unas almejas", no entiendo porque utilizamos 'si' y no 'son'.
In the example:
Nuestra ayuda está dirigida a jóvenes sin empleo. Estas son personas que han acabado sus estudios y no han encontrado trabajo.
why is it "Estas" and not "Estos"? Doesn't this pronoun need to agree with "jóvenes" rather than "personas"?
Could you use something like 'Me fío plenamente de él' instead of 'confío plenamente en él'? I know the hint said to use the pronoun 'I'; would it sound unnatural to say 'Yo me fío plenamente de él'?
Buenas tardes,
Within the context of the passage, would I be right in saying that, "...sobran guionistas a patadas..." means "there are plenty of or more than enough screenwriters"?
Gracias de antemano 😊
I just took a quiz that included this (correct) answer: "ya sea salado o dulce" to complete the sentence "Me encanta la cocina francesa...." Why doesn't the 1st adjective change to agree in gender with "cocina"? I picked it anyway, as there was no option with "salada" (and it was the best available option) but it still struck me as incorrect.
In the beginning of the story, using present perfect was clear because she is saying that her best friend has come to visit. Afterwards, when she is narrating what they did each day, we have specific time (the day mentioned) and what they did which to me seems to be how we use preterite for a specific time (day) in the past, so it is confusing to see present perfect for specific time events in the past. Can you please explain why you continued to use pr. perfect and did not switch to another tense. To me (the "has come" in the beginning) would have been more appropriate with what they are going to do in the future since she mentions that "they have made tons on plans."
Hi. I'm a big fan of this site, for many reasons, so I am pointing this out in a spirit of collaboration, not criticism: I think this page should refer to "present continuous" and "present participles", not gerunds.
The gerund is a form, derived from a verb, which ends in --ing, but it is the noun from the verb. This page is all about an alternative verb form.
For example: "Smoking is bad for you."
"Smoking" is a gerund, as it has become a noun.
"That man is smoking" is the present continuous form of the verb. "Smoking" in this sentence is the present participle, i.e. not a gerund.
I am prepared to accept that this might be a US/UK English thing; I'd be very interested to hear if this were the case.
Best wishes
Andrew Wenger
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