Gerund (Gerundio)
A flashcard deck for the gerundio, the -ndo form used in the progressive (estoy hablando).
The gerundio is regular for most verbs: -ar verbs take -ando (hablando), -er and -ir verbs take -iendo (comiendo, viviendo). The irregular ones are a small set worth knowing by heart:
- the -ir stem-changers, which raise the stem vowel: decir → diciendo, pedir → pidiendo, dormir → durmiendo;
- verbs whose stem ends in a vowel, which take -yendo: leer → leyendo, oÃr → oyendo, ir → yendo;
- a few more, such as poder → pudiendo.
The card. The front shows the infinitive under the instruction "Give the gerundio". Tap the card to turn it: the back shows the gerundio and the verb's translation. The part of the gerundio that departs from the regular pattern is coloured as in the conjugation tables (see The conjugation colour code (Spanish)), e.g. the u in durmiendo. The book opens the verb's full conjugation; the speaker reads the infinitive on the front and the gerundio on the back.
Grading. On iPhone and iPad, swipe right if you knew it and left if you didn't. On the Mac, and with VoiceOver, use the Wrong and Correct buttons. The card then moves on by itself.
How the deck is built. Every verb in your selection with an irregular gerundio is in the deck, plus half as many regular verbs for comparison. The line under the progress bar shows the mix. If your selection has no irregular gerundios, the screen offers Edit your verb selection or Use every verb (just for this drill).
The session. The Incorrect answers switch, session length, answer count and end of the session work as in Verb meaning. Each graded card is recorded on your device against the verb.