The Present Participle
In English
Turns out, you can use the present participle in English as something other than a noun: it can also be a type of modifier. Check out the following example:
- Lee keeps peeling oranges in bed.
- Celine Dion bellowed the National Anthem, pounding her chest like a gorilla. (Careful with those dangling modifiers.)
English also likes using these after certain prepositions and certain phrases, like so:
- Brad ended up crying at the end of The Notebook.
- It's no use trying to escape.
These present participles can also be seen in compound nouns:
- I wish I were a flying squirrel.
- Let me just put on my dancing shoes.
If you guessed that Spanish uses the present participle differently, you'd be right. Still, there are some similarities.
In Spanish
Spanish mainly uses the present participle as a modifier. Also, they call it a gerund. That might be confusing, since "Gerunds" is a completely separate section. Sorry, Shmoopers. We do what we can.
It doesn't really matter anyway. The number-one thing to remember? Present participles cannot be used as nouns in Spanish.
Like English, Spanish uses -ndo verbs in the progressive tense, but also with verbs of motion:
- Sigo teniendo problemas con mi computadora.
- Continúan haciendo las mismas preguntas.
- Marcos salió de la casa corriendo.
- Mi hermana entró llorando.
- Luego volvieron pidiendo más dinero.
- Ese tipo anda quejándose de todo.
(Source)
It's not always directly translatable, but native English speakers learning Spanish don't have much trouble recognizing these structures.
Then, we got adverbial phrases. English and Spanish both use the present participle in adverbial phrases, but in sort-of different ways. This is how Spanish does it:
- Mejoré mi técnica como violinista practicando ocho horas al día.
- Hablando de vacaciones, ¿qué vas a hacer este verano?
- Sabiendo qué hacer, pude entrar en la oficina sin que nadie me viera.
- Caminando por el pueblo, noté que no había nadie en las calles.
- Ayer vi a Elena caminando por el parque.
- ¿Has oído a tu marido cantando en la ducha?
- Habrás notado la cantidad de gansos caminando por nuestra ciudad universitaria.
Adopted from: (Source)
Complicated? Yes. Impossible to learn? Nah. We'll admit, though: it is difficult to learn all the ways that different languages use adverbs. We get it. But we'll be there for you, Shmooper.
The Past Participle
In both English and Spanish, the past participle is used in all perfect tense constructions, like here:
Present Perfect
- I have decided that I don't like lettuce.
- He decidido que no me gusta la lechuga.
Past Perfect
- I had spoken to him before.
- Había hablado con él antes.
Future Perfect
- I will have been with Austin for two years in one month.
- Habré sido con Austin por dos años en un mes.
The past participle is also used in the passive voice in both English and Spanish:
- The paper was written by Tasha.
- El ensayo fue escrito por Tasha.
What we're interested in is the past participle here. In the examples above, the past participles (respectively) are decided, spoken, been, and written in English and decidido, hablado, sido, and escrito in Spanish.
Pretty simple, but you know what's even better?
Both English and Spanish also use the past participle as an adjective. Here are some examples:
- Burned toast is a delicacy in Shmoopville.
- Pan quemado es una exquisitez en Shmoopville.
The real difference here is how often the past participle is used.
The passive voice is used more in Spanish than in English (source). However, it's still used less than the active voice (source). We're guessing people generally dislike the passive voice because it takes focus away from the actual do-er of the action. That, and it tends to be clunky.
For everything else, it's pretty evenly distributed.