Lesson 35: 'ing' Practice - Being, Leaving and Buying
More ways to use the 'ing' ending on verbs and how the meaning changes depending on the use of 'Estar' or 'Ser' before the verb.
But before we get started a little practice on finding words.
Sincerity
As we've covered before if we have an English word ending "ity" we can find the Spanish by removing the "ity" and adding 'idad'.
 Spanish |  English |
|---|---|
| Sinceridad | Sincerity |
Now from here there is no hard and fast rule to finding the Spanish word for "Sincere" but if we were in a situation where we had to guess we would take off the 'idad' and see if it sounded Spanish enough. If it didn't we would add an 'o' to the end (os an 'a' if we are female!).
We might be wrong but at least we stand a chance of being right than not saying anthing at all. In this case however ... we're right!
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Sincero | sincere |
Sincero - state of characteristic
Next up if we had to say that someone is sincere we need to know whether to use 'estar' (state) or 'ser' (characteristic) as the verb "to be".
Now its fair to say being sincerer could be both what someone is now (a state) or how someone generally is (a characteristic). So, unless it is clear whether we are referring to a state or a characteristic, to remember which "to be" to use we have to think of the concept of "being sincere".
And as an overall concept "being sincere" is a characteristic.
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Soy sincera | I am sincere (female) |
| Somos sinceras | We are sincere (female group) |
Now that doesn't mean there isn't a state of sincerity. We're talking about the default. But if you wanted to point out that you are being sincere right now you would say, as we do in English, "I am being sincere.
This means finding the 'ing' form of 'ser' by using one of the following rules.
- for 'ar' verbs we take off 'ar' and add 'ando'
- for 'er' and 'ir' verbs we take off the 'er' or the 'ir' and add 'iendo'.
And now because we are talking about a state we need to use 'Estar'.
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Estoy siendo sincero | I am being sincere |
| Estamos siendo honestos | We are being honest |
Salir recap
Now its just important to remember we don't always need a "to be". When we say "I'm leaving" in Spanish the "to be" is built into the verb. We only need it when we want to express a state or a characteristic.
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Salgo pronto | I'm leaving soon |
| Salgo mañana | I'm leaving tomorrow |
| Estoy saliendo | I'm leaving (right now) |
Most importantly we have to watch out for any negative language transfer from English because in English we use the 'ing' ending far more widely than just to explain "right now".
Comprar recap
Let's go over another verb we've already used.
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Comprar | to buy |
| Los compro | I buy them / I'm buying them |
| Los compro mañana | I'm buying them tomorrow |
| Los compro la semana que viene | I'm buying them next week |
| Los estoy comprando ahora | I'm buying them now (at this moment) |
| Estoy comprando los ahora | I'm buying them now (at this moment) |
Now if your wondering how you are going to remember these 'ing' endings this is what worked for me:
There is a cheesey song by Enrique Iglesias - Bialando. You don't need to understand the words at the stage but the video contains a lot of different types of "dancing" - it should do because 'Bailando' means "dancing".
So if I ever want to remember how verbs end when I need the "ing" ending I think back to this video about "dancing" and remember the name of the song is 'Bialando' which means "dancing" - that's my hook!.
Lesson 36: The future tense using 'I will'