Sequence of Tenses, Gerundio and Verbal Noun in Spanish

Juan y Juana

Habiendo salido de la casa Juana encontró a José.
— ¿No quieres regresar a casa? — preguntó este.
— ¿Por qué?
— Porque quiero leerte un cuento especial para ti.
— ¿Por qué para mí?
— Porque en este cuento ella se llama Juana y él se llama Juan.
Juana le miró riendo y dijo:
— Bueno, léemelo.

Hasta que un día, y cuando él, su Juan, menos lo sospechaba, lo sorprendió besando un retrato. Y se retiró angustiada, pero resuelta a saber de quién era el retrato ...”

Vocablos

Remember the expressions:

Grammar

1. Sequence of Tenses

Just like in English, in Spanish, if the predicate in the main clause is expressed by a verb in the past tense, then the verb in the subordinate clause introduced by the conjunction que (that) must be in a past tense (specifically, the imperfect past tense).

Therefore, the following sentence is built like this:

Memorize the following sequence of tenses:

* The Present Perfect tense, despite its name, has much in common with the present tense in Spanish, so in the subordinate clause it is acceptable to use the verb either in the past tense (imperfecto) or in the present.

2. Gerundio (Present Participle)

Gerundio simple (the simple form) is an invariable verb form and corresponds mostly to the English Present Participle (the -ing form). It takes the following endings:

The simple gerundio expresses an action simultaneous with the action of the main verb.

Into English, gerundio is translated as a present participle (the -ing form):

• acting as an adverbial modifier, for example:

   

  Lo miró riendo.

  She looked at him laughing.

• acting as an active participle, for example:

  Lo sorprendió besando el retrato.

  She caught him kissing the portrait.

  Los vi escuchando la radio.

  I saw them listening to the radio.

The English present participle can also be expressed in Spanish as follows:

Instead of:

You can say:

or:

Thus, with the help of gerundio, we translate English present participles and it can also replace subordinate clauses.

It must be remembered that the gerundio is always placed near the subject or the direct object. Special attention should be paid to this when translating into English to avoid mistakes, for example:

Some irregular verbs have irregular forms of gerundio, for example:

Besides the simple form of gerundio, a compound form — gerundio compuesto is used in the Spanish language. It is formed with the auxiliary verb haber in the gerundio form — habiendo — and the past participle of the main verb, for example:

Note:

The compound gerundio expresses an action that precedes the action expressed by the main verb. Into English, it is usually translated as a perfect participle (having + past participle) or a subordinate clause starting with when.

3. Verbal Noun. Nominal Value of the Infinitive

In Spanish, the infinitive often functions as a verbal noun in the masculine singular. In this case, the masculine singular definite article is placed before the verb in the infinitive.

Exercises

I. Put the verbs in brackets in the appropriate form:

Juan decía a Juana que (pensar) siempre en ella. Juana lo escuchaba contenta y pensó que (deber) contestarle algo, pero no pudo. José dijo a María que (buscar) la soledad para poder estudiar. María no estaba contenta y dijo que (querer) estar siempre con José. Carmencita miraba por la ventana y decía que (ver) su perro y a muchos chicos que (jugar) con él. De repente Carmencita gritó y dijo que uno de los chicos se (llevar) el perro.

II. Replace the infinitive in brackets with the corresponding gerundio form.

Miré por la ventana y vi a Juana (hablar) con Juan. Abrí la puerta y vi a Carmen (jugar) con los chicos. Cerré el libro, miré a todas y las vi (llorar) . Al hombre que encontré (comer) en este restaurante, lo encontré después en la bodega (beber) jerez.

III. Translate into English:

José y María se casaron y tenían muchos hijos. Un día, recordando el tiempo de su noviazgo, se reían mucho. María dijo que José andaba todavía enamorado de ella. José contestó que esto no era verdad, pero se veía en sus ojos que no pensaba así, porque María era muy hermosa todavía, aunque algo gruesa ya.

IV. Translate into Spanish:

Carmen did not eat while playing with the boys in the street. Juan said nothing, looking at Juana. Everyone was looking at Jose, listening to how he was reading. Maria went out, closing the door. Dad, drinking coffee, was listening to the radio.