gerund vs. gerundio

Gerund vs. Gerundio

They seem so obviously to be the same thing.

But, dammit, they're not.

😩

We know that "gerundio" in Spanish is any verb that takes the "ando" o "endo"

form.

And we know that anything "ando" o "endo" is expressed in English

with "ing".

So far, so good, right?

You may even know that a gerund is a verb that takes the "ing" form.

So... from there it's easy to conclude that gerund

and gerundio are the same.

Here's the deal:

Estoy trabajando. -- I'm working.Está leyendo. -- She's reading.

Estuvimos roncando. -- We were snoring.

In the above examples, "trabajando", "leyendo", & "roncando" are what in Spanish

we refer to as gerundios.

In English, we communicate the same idea with "working", "reading" & "snoring", but

they are not gerunds.

Not in the above examples, anyway.

A gerund in English is, in fact, the "ing" form of a verb, but not for forming

continuous/progressive tenses.

A gerund in English is a verb converted into a noun... and the "ing" form is used

to do this:

Studying is fun.Music is more than just singing words.

An English gerund is never expressed in Spanish using "ando" o "endo".

Expressing what an English gerund communicates is done in Spanish with the basic form of the verb:

Studying is fun.Estudiar es divertido.

Estudiando es divertido.

Music is more than just singing words.La música es más que simplemente cantar letras.

La música es más que simplemente cantando letras.