Gerund Errors | Catalan Grammar

The Catalan gerund is a nonfinite modifier: it normally presents an action as simultaneous with the finite event, or as its manner, circumstance, or cause. Four common errors ask it to do a different job: narrate a later result, attach to the wrong logical subject, function as an English-style verbal noun, or create a progressive where Catalan uses a simple tense.

These are structural errors, not merely stylistic dislikes. The fastest repair is to identify time, subject, and function before looking at the ending -ant/-ent/-int.

The diagnostic workflow

Find the finite verb: it anchors the sentence in person and time.
Put the gerundial event on a timeline. If it happens later as a result, use coordination or a finite subordinate clause.
Name the understood subject of the gerund. In an ordinary sentence-level adjunct, it is normally controlled by the main-clause subject. A gerund can instead be predicated of a direct object with a licensing verb such as veure or trobar (La vaig trobar esperant al passadís); otherwise, do not assign it to a nearby object or an absent narrator.
Ask whether English -ing is naming an activity. Catalan normally uses an infinitive or a noun, not a gerund, in subject and object positions.
If the gerund belongs to estar + gerund, test whether an event is genuinely in progress at the relevant moment.
Check whether the error is actually about anteriority. Havent + participle expresses a prior event, never a later one.

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Use three labels in the margin: BEFORE, DURING, AFTER. A simple gerund belongs most naturally under DURING; havent + participle belongs under BEFORE; AFTER normally needs a finite verb.

A gerund cannot narrate a later result

A posterior gerund disguises the next event in a sequence as if it were a circumstance of the first. If “and then,” “thereby later,” or a new date fits between the clauses, coordinate two finite verbs or state the result explicitly. See Gerunds and Posteriority.

Repair 1 — later physical result.

❌ Va relliscar a l'entrada, trencant-se les ulleres contra el terra.

The glasses broke as a later result of the slip, not as its simultaneous manner.

✅ Va relliscar a l'entrada i se li van trencar les ulleres en picar contra el terra.

She slipped at the entrance, and her glasses broke when they hit the floor.

Repair 2 — a later administrative outcome.

❌ El comitè va aprovar l'esmena, publicant-la al butlletí l'endemà.

L'endemà proves that publication followed rather than accompanied approval.

✅ El comitè va aprovar l'esmena i la va publicar al butlletí l'endemà.

The committee approved the amendment and published it in the bulletin the next day.

Repair 3 — consequence as a finite clause.

❌ La canonada es va rebentar, quedant tot el soterrani inundat hores després.

Posterior result wrongly compressed into a gerund, with an explicit later time.

✅ La canonada es va rebentar, de manera que tot el soterrani va quedar inundat hores després.

The pipe burst, so the whole basement was flooded hours later.

A sentence-final gerund is not automatically wrong. Va entrar al despatx xiulant means that the subject entered while whistling; the two events overlap. That grammatical sentence would mean something different from Va entrar al despatx i després va xiular, where the whistling began later. This is the first meaning-changing contrast.

Keep the gerund's logical subject under control

In ordinary adjunct use, the understood subject of the gerund is normally the subject of the finite clause. Object-oriented gerunds are nevertheless licensed as secondary predicates with verbs such as veure and trobar: Vaig veure la candidata esperant al passadís can mean that the candidate was waiting. Writers create a dangling gerund when no such predicative structure licenses the intended actor—for example, when that actor is merely an object, a possessor, or someone absent from the sentence. The reader then assigns the gerund to the grammatical subject and obtains an absurd picture.

Repair 4 — the document cannot walk.

❌ Caminant cap a l'estació, el contracte em va caure de la carpeta.

Grammatically, el contracte becomes the walker; the intended walker is only encoded as em.

✅ Mentre caminava cap a l'estació, em va caure el contracte de la carpeta.

While I was walking to the station, the contract fell out of my folder.

Repair 5 — the applicant, not the committee, waits.

❌ Esperant al passadís, el tribunal va cridar la candidata.

The gerund attaches to el tribunal, contrary to the intended scene.

✅ Mentre la candidata esperava al passadís, el tribunal la va cridar.

While the candidate was waiting in the corridor, the panel called her in.

Repair 6 — expose the evaluator.

❌ Revisant les dades, els resultats semblen poc fiables.

The surface subject els resultats cannot review data.

✅ Quan revisem les dades, veiem que els resultats semblen poc fiables.

When we review the data, we see that the results appear unreliable.

Formal and (academic) prose especially needs explicit control because an unattached introductory gerund can obscure who performed a method or reached a conclusion. This is not a ban on all overt gerund subjects; marked absolute-like constructions exist, but they require their own syntax and register. The safe neutral repair is a finite clause.

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After an introductory gerund, read the next noun phrase as its actor. If the resulting scene is impossible—“the contract was walking,” “the results reviewed”—rewrite with mentre, quan, or com que and an explicit subject.

English -ing nouns are usually Catalan infinitives or nouns

English uses one -ing form for progress (is reading), circumstance (left smiling), and nominal activities (reading helps). Catalan divides those jobs. A bare gerund is not the ordinary name of an activity; use an infinitive or a lexical noun.

Repair 7 — activity as subject.

❌ Llegint abans de dormir millora la concentració.

Wrong for the general activity ‘reading’; the gerund instead seeks a simultaneous finite event.

✅ Llegir abans de dormir millora la concentració.

Reading before bed improves concentration.

Repair 8 — activity after a preposition.

❌ Hem parlat de canviant els torns de cap de setmana.

English-style nominal gerund after de; Catalan uses an infinitive.

✅ Hem parlat de canviar els torns de cap de setmana.

We've talked about changing the weekend shifts.

Repair 9 — an institutional heading.

❌ Aprenent llengües al llarg de la vida és l'objectiu del programa.

The gerund cannot serve as the neutral subject phrase intended here.

✅ L'aprenentatge de llengües al llarg de la vida és l'objectiu del programa.

Lifelong language learning is the program's objective.

Use a progressive only for a genuine close-up

Estar + gerund places the listener inside an unfolding event. English uses its progressive much more broadly—for schedules, repeated annoyance, changing states, and temporary descriptions. Catalan often chooses a simple present or imperfect unless ongoingness is the point.

Repair 10 — ordinary habit.

❌ Cada dimarts estem revisant les comandes pendents.

Unnecessary progressive for a routine marked by cada dimarts.

✅ Cada dimarts revisem les comandes pendents.

Every Tuesday we review the pending orders.

Repair 11 — neutral present state.

❌ Ara mateix estic entenent millor la teva proposta.

Entendre is normally presented as a state/result here, not an unfolding activity.

✅ Ara mateix entenc millor la teva proposta.

I understand your proposal better now.

Repair 12 — actual interruption.

❌ No apaguis el projector: explico la gràfica de la dreta.

Possible as a neutral narrative present, but it misses the intended action underway at this instant.

✅ No apaguis el projector: estic explicant la gràfica de la dreta.

Don't turn off the projector: I'm explaining the graph on the right.

The crossed version in Repair 12 is grammatical in a live commentary style; the progressive more explicitly answers “what is happening right now?” This is the second meaning-changing contrast, not a simple good-versus-bad opposition.

Anterior gerunds do not solve posteriority

The compound gerund havent + participle moves its event earlier than the finite event. It is common in (formal/academic) prose, while conversation often prefers després d'haver..., un cop..., or a finite clause.

Havent comprovat totes les signatures, la notària va tancar l'expedient.

Having checked all the signatures, the notary closed the file.

Changing a posterior gerund to havent reverses time and therefore cannot repair it. Havent publicat l'acord l'endemà, el van aprovar dilluns says publication came first, which clashes with the intended chronology.

Contact, region, and register

English transfer produces nominal gerunds and excess progressives. Spanish contact can reinforce posterior gerunds and broader progressive chains, but these errors also occur in monolingual formal writing because the compressed construction sounds bureaucratic. Diagnose the timeline rather than assuming a speaker's source.

The core restrictions are shared by IEC and AVL standards. Valencian, Balearic, Northwestern, Northern, and Alguerese varieties differ in frequency and auxiliary realization, not in a way that licenses a genuinely dangling subject or unambiguous later-result gerund in careful prose. Literal venir cantant and aspectual anar millorant are legitimate when motion or gradual development is real; do not delete them merely because they contain a gerund.

Correction task

Repair each sentence for the stated reading.

Va lliurar la sol·licitud, rebent l'autorització al cap de dos mesos. (later result)
Sortint de l'ascensor, les claus se li van escampar per terra. (she was exiting)
Nedant és bo per a l'esquena. (activity as subject)
La temperatura va baixant a poc a poc. (gradual development)

Answers: Va lliurar la sol·licitud i va rebre l'autorització al cap de dos mesos; Quan sortia de l'ascensor, se li van escampar les claus per terra; Nedar és bo per a l'esquena; the fourth is already correct because anar + gerund presents a real gradual change.

Common Mistakes

❌ L'autobús va xocar amb la tanca, arribant la policia vint minuts més tard.

Arriving twenty minutes later is a separate posterior event.

✅ L'autobús va xocar amb la tanca i la policia va arribar vint minuts més tard.

The bus hit the fence, and the police arrived twenty minutes later.

❌ Havent molta boira, van cancel·lar la travessia.

Havent is not an existential gerund equivalent to Spanish habiendo.

✅ Com que hi havia molta boira, van cancel·lar la travessia.

Because there was thick fog, they canceled the crossing.

❌ M'agrada cuinant per als amics els diumenges.

After agradar, the activity is named with an infinitive, not a gerund.

✅ M'agrada cuinar per als amics els diumenges.

I like cooking for friends on Sundays.

Key Takeaways

A simple gerund normally expresses simultaneity, manner, circumstance, or cause—not a later result.
Its understood subject must be recoverable without attaching absurdly to the main-clause subject.
English nominal -ing usually maps to a Catalan infinitive or lexical noun.
Estar + gerund is an aspectual close-up, not the default present tense.
Havent + participle marks anteriority and cannot repair posteriority.

Final proofreading checklist

Does the gerundial event overlap with the finite event, or does it happen afterward?
Can the grammatical subject of the finite clause logically perform the gerund, or does a licensing verb clearly make the direct object its understood subject?
If English uses -ing as a noun, have you chosen a Catalan infinitive or lexical noun?
Does estar + gerund add a real in-progress viewpoint rather than copy English aspect?
If the event is earlier, is havent + participle appropriate and unambiguous?
Have you preserved valid manner, literal-motion, and gradual-change gerunds?
Is a compressed construction clear enough for its (formal/academic) register, or would a finite clause identify time and subject better?

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