Hola 👋🏻 Feliz martes. ¿Cómo estás?

Bienvenido/a to Master Spanish Weekly, where Spanish becomes part of your day.

At home, we speak Spanish 100% of the time, but my son’s education is in English. He’s 10 now, and like many bilingual kids (and adults), he sometimes mixes how the two languages work.

A few days ago, we were talking about soccer practice. I was explaining why it’s important to practice on your own, not only with others. And he said:

I understood what he wanted to say, but the sentence wasn’t quite right in Spanish.

What he meant was:

This happens because in English, words ending in -ing can act like nouns:
Practicing is important.

But in Spanish, the endings -ando / -iendo don’t work that way.
They usually describe an action in progress, not an idea.

That’s why today’s topic is a very common one.

Vamos 🧠

This mistake is very common and very logical.

In English, words ending in -ing can do a lot of jobs.
They can describe an action, or they can act like a thing or an idea.

For example:

Here, practicing and learning are not actions happening right now.
They’re ideas.

That’s where Spanish works differently.

In Spanish, -ando / -iendo almost always mean an action in progress. Something happening right now or around now.

So when you say:

You’re saying: this is happening at this moment.

But when you’re talking about an idea, a habit, or a general concept, Spanish does not use -ando / -iendo.

Instead, Spanish uses the infinitive:

Think of the infinitive as the Spanish version of “the act of…”

Let’s go back to the example

❌ Practicando con mis amigos es mejor que practicando solo.

This sounds strange in Spanish because nothing is happening right now.
We’re talking about an idea, a comparison.

So Spanish switches to the infinitive:

✅ Practicar con mis amigos es mejor que practicar solo.

You could mentally translate it as:

That’s why it works.

Another way to think about it

Ask yourself this simple question:

👉 Am I talking about “right now” or “in general”?

If it’s right now → use -ando / -iendo

If it’s in general → use the infinitive

📄 Save this for later
A two-page chart with 25 clear examples to help you stop translating “-ing” literally. Download the PDF 👇🏼

Choose the correct option:

1. ___ español es importante.
A) Aprendiendo
B) Aprender

2. Estoy ___ con mis amigos.
A) practicar
B) practicando

3. ___ solo a veces es difícil.
A) Estudiando
B) Estudiar

4. Ella está ___ mucho este mes.
A) aprender
B) aprendiendo

5. ___ todos los días ayuda mucho.
A) Practicar
B) Practicando

Gracias por leer y seguir aprendiendo Español conmigo.
Siempre hay tiempo para practicar 😊

¡Un abrazo!
- Alejandro Nuñez, Founder & Director @ Vokally

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