The truth is that we proofreaders are always complaining about the misuse of gerunds. Personally, I have the feeling that these complaints fall on deaf ears, because every time I receive a new medical text in Spanish to edit or proofread I am confronted with a tide of gerunds.
In this post I would like to analyse (once again) the causes of ‘gerundivitis’, but, above all, to make the writer, editor or researcher aware of the bad image projected by texts riddled with incorrect gerunds and the repercussions this can have on the way the content is received and judged.
The gerund and its legitimate uses
The first thing to clarify is that the gerund has perfectly valid uses in Spanish, but there are few of them. Its simplest use is the formation of the present progressive or present continuous tense (something that is happening at this very moment), or other periphrases of the gerund that express an action, a process or a state of affairs in progress. In the case of complex sentences, it serves to express an action simultaneous to that of the main verb. It is extremely important to remember that if the action is not simultaneous, the gerund is not relevant at all. Let’s look at some examples:
– Present progressive: El niño está llorando; mi padre está llegando ahora.
– Periphrasis: Llevo estudiando un rato; nos dijo que siguiéramos trabajando.
– Two sentences; simultaneous action: El ingeniero resolvió el problema utilizando un nuevo algoritmo; ella me dejó claro lo que pensaba lanzándome una mirada acusadora.
If we look closely, in complex sentences with a main verb (resolvió, dejó), the gerund answers the question how? and fulfils the function of adverbial of manner (in what way or how did the engineer solve the problem? By using a new algorithm). I am perfectly aware that during syntax classes in high school we were all (except for three or four weirdos) thinking about other things or drawing little monkeys in a notebook, because we found the grammar jargon soporific. However I think this explanation is extremely useful for identifying the correct use of a gerund in a complex or subordinate clause, and can be of great help. So ask yourselves: does the gerund act as an adverbial of manner? Yes? It is correct. No? Delete it.
Incorrect uses of the gerund
There are basically two most frequent errors with the gerund.
1. Gerund of posteriority
Here the error consists of using the gerund to express an action that happens after the main verb.
Se realizó el experimento, obteniendo los resultados esperados.
Se sometió a votación la enmienda, aprobándose por unanimidad.
What is going on here? Simply that the actions expressed by the gerund happen after the main verb. The correct way to express this temporal succession is to use the conjunction y (in addition to conjugating the verb, of course):
Se realizó el experimento y se obtuvieron los resultados esperados.
Se sometió a votación la enmienda y se aprobó por unanimidad.
How simple, clean and neat.
2. Gerund expressing cause
Se incrementó la eficiencia, reduciendo el consumo de energía.
El tratamiento elimina el dolor crónico, mejorando la calidad de vida del paciente.
The use of the gerund here hides a logical relationship that deserves to be made explicit: Did efficiency increase because consumption was reduced, or did it do so at the same time? What was cause and what was effect? The patient’s quality of life improves because the pain disappears, right? Therefore, in temporal terms, quality of life improves afterthe disappearance of pain (not before or during). So the gerund is not relevant. The correct sentences would be:
Se incrementó la eficiencia y esto redujo el consumo de energía.
El tratamiento elimina el dolor crónico, lo que mejora la calidad de vida del paciente.
Even the order of the elements can be changed to make simple causal sentences.
El consumo de energía se redujo porque se incrementó la eficiencia.
La calidad de vida del paciente mejora debido a que el tratamiento elimina el dolor crónico.
Of course, in practice both uses are mixed and matched, and precisely the ambiguity of the gerund often makes it difficult to understand whether the sentence has a temporal or causal nuance. All the more reason to avoid the gerund.
Why is the gerund abused?
The misuse of the gerund proliferates in texts of all kinds, as it is a widespread and endemic error. Fiction, essays, journalistic articles, technical books… In all of them we will find numerous misused gerunds. Scientific books, in particular, are especially prone to this problem. I would like to point out that, when I am confronted with a scientific-medical text translated from English, I almost never encounter these gerunds. If I come across any, it is an exception generated by the AI (see below) or by a translator who was tired after many hours of work.
However, as soon as I receive a medical text written by Spanish-speaking doctors, I start to tremble and prepare myself for the flood of gerunds.
Why does this happen? There are several reasons.
– English copy: the primary origin of the misuse of the gerund is the influence of English. In English, it is correct to use the gerund with the meaning of posteriority and, in fact, it is used quite a lot (although it is possible that there is also some abuse in this practice). The proliferation of mistranslations has led to this problem being extrapolated to original texts.
– Economy of words and appearance of fluency: the gerund allows the author to condense complex ideas into less space. In dense texts, it seems to give rhythm and continuity. It also avoids having to conjugate the verb.
– False sophistication: this is a problem very specific to technical and scientific texts. Some authors believe that the gerund sounds ‘more scientific’ or ‘more professional’, and this is the main battle we have to fight. The gerund is not only used mistakenly, often it is used completely intentionally in the belief that the text will sound more professional or ‘academic’. There are authors who choose the gerund because they associate it with linguistic prestige. I am afraid, dear authors, that nothing could be further from the truth.
– Loss of the ability to construct relative clauses: it has been observed that in recent decades Spanish speakers are losing the ability to construct relative clauses and subordinate clauses correctly. These constructions require precise agreement between the elements of the sentence and involve an additional effort that speakers do not seem to be willing to take on. In this sense, the gerund is a very practical wild card.
Reasons why you should stop using gerunds incorrectly
– Precisely because science demands precision and clarity, the scientific writer must know the proper use of language. I can think of no other profession in which language must be more exact, as there is no point in making progress in knowledge not conveyed well. Ambiguity or miscommunication can lead to misperceptions and misinterpretations. Science is the opposite; it is accuracy, measurement and evidence. Doubts about the causality of an event cannot be allowed, since differentiating causality from consequentiality is one of the fundamental tasks of science. Using incorrect gerunds casts constant doubt on this aspect and leaves it up to the proofreader (who does not always have adequate medical knowledge) to decide on the causality or temporality of the events being described.
– A text riddled with gerunds conveys that the author is lazy and incapable of constructing complex sentences and relative clauses; it creates confusion and reading fatigue and distracts attention from the content. Believe me: it is very tiresome to read texts full of gerunds.
I know that in the near future we will continue to see texts with misused gerunds, but I hope that this small summary of the phenomenon can bring some clarity to interested people. It is very important for authors to understand that the gerund is not prestigious, but simply annoying.
What does AI do?
The most advanced artificial intelligence software usually avoids gerunds and correctly translates this type of English constructions. They may miss some gerunds (especially if the original text has too many of them), so you should always keep an eye on them.
Of course, there are very low quality automatic translators that translate all gerunds literally. Beware.
