The construction venir + gerund expresses something that has been building up gradually over time. It communicates accumulation — the sense that evidence, experience, or feelings have been piling up and have now reached a point where they deserve mention. English has no clean equivalent, but think of phrases like "I've been noticing for a while now" or "this has been going on for some time".
Where estar + gerundio simply says "something is happening right now" and ir + gerundio describes something unfolding step by step, venir + gerundio adds a backward-looking perspective: the action started at some earlier point and has been accumulating up to the present moment. The speaker is standing at the end of the process, looking back at everything that led here.
Formation
Conjugate venir in any tense and follow it with the gerund of the main verb. No preposition is needed between them.
| Subject | Venir (present) |
|
|---|---|---|
| yo | vengo | vengo notando |
| tú | vienes | vienes diciendo |
| él/ella/usted | viene | viene pasando |
| nosotros | venimos | venimos observando |
| ustedes/ellos | vienen | vienen pidiendo |
Vengo notando que llegas tarde todos los días.
I've been noticing (for a while now) that you arrive late every day.
Esto viene pasando desde hace meses.
This has been going on for months.
The sense of accumulation
The core idea behind venir + gerundio is that repeated instances have been adding up. The speaker is not describing a single ongoing event — they are pointing to a pattern or a growing body of evidence.
Vengo diciéndote que tenés que estudiar más.
I've been telling you (again and again) that you need to study more.
Los precios vienen subiendo desde el año pasado.
Prices have been going up since last year.
Venir + gerundio across tenses
This construction works in multiple tenses, and each one shifts the temporal frame of the accumulation.
Present: vengo + gerund
The accumulation has been building up to the present moment.
Vengo pensando en esto desde hace semanas.
I've been thinking about this for weeks.
Los vecinos vienen quejándose del ruido.
The neighbors have been complaining (repeatedly) about the noise.
Imperfect: venía + gerund
The accumulation was building up to a past reference point. This is extremely common in narration.
Venía sintiéndome mal, así que fui al médico.
I had been feeling sick (for a while), so I went to the doctor.
El equipo venía perdiendo partidos desde marzo.
The team had been losing games since March.
Preterite: vine + gerund
Less common, but used to describe a completed period of accumulation — the build-up happened and then it ended.
Vine arrastrando ese problema durante años.
I dragged that problem along for years.
Conditional: vendría + gerund
Used in hypothetical or softened statements.
Natural pairings: perception and cognition verbs
Venir + gerundio pairs most naturally with verbs of perception, cognition, and gradual change — verbs where accumulated experience makes sense:
- notar (to notice) — vengo notando
- observar (to observe) — venimos observando
- sentir (to feel) — venía sintiendo
- pensar (to think) — vengo pensando
- decir (to say/tell) — vengo diciendo
- sospechar (to suspect) — venía sospechando
- subir/bajar (to go up/down) — vienen subiendo
- empeorar/mejorar (to worsen/improve) — viene empeorando
Venimos observando una tendencia preocupante en los datos.
We've been observing a concerning trend in the data.
Vengo sintiendo que algo va a cambiar.
I've been feeling that something is going to change.
Contrast: venir vs. estar vs. ir + gerundio
These three gerund periphrases each paint a different picture:
| Construction | Focus | Example | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| estar + gerundio | Ongoing right now | Está lloviendo. | It's raining (right now). |
| ir + gerundio | Unfolding forward | Va mejorando. | It's gradually getting better (step by step). |
| venir + gerundio | Accumulated from the past | Viene lloviendo desde ayer. | It's been raining since yesterday (and it keeps going). |
El país está atravesando una crisis.
The country is going through a crisis. (snapshot of now)
El país fue atravesando varias crisis.
The country went through several crises one by one. (sequential unfolding)
El país viene atravesando crisis tras crisis.
The country has been going through crisis after crisis. (accumulated pattern)
Common mistakes
Using venir + gerundio for a single ongoing action. This construction implies repetition or gradual accumulation, not a single continuous event. To say "I'm reading a book right now", use estoy leyendo, not vengo leyendo.
Confusing venir + gerundio with the literal meaning of venir. Viene corriendo can mean "he comes running" (literal: arrives by running) or "he's been running (repeatedly, over time)" depending on context. Pay attention to whether the sentence describes physical arrival or accumulated action.
Forgetting that the accumulation is still relevant. Unlike the preterite, which closes off a past event, venir + gerundio in the present tense implies the pattern is ongoing and has present relevance. If the action stopped, use a past tense instead.
In journalism and formal speech
This construction is a favorite of journalists and analysts because it neatly conveys ongoing trends:
La inflación viene aumentando a un ritmo alarmante.
Inflation has been increasing at an alarming rate.
Como venimos informando, las negociaciones no avanzan.
As we have been reporting, the negotiations are not progressing.
For how long an action has been ongoing (with a specific time duration), see llevar + gerund. For progressive unfolding over time, see ir + gerund. For the future periphrasis with ir, see ir a + infinitive.
Related Topics
- Llevar + Gerund (Have Been Doing For...)B2 — Use llevar + time + gerund to express how long someone has been doing an ongoing action.
- Ir + A + InfinitiveA2 — Express the near or planned future with ir + a + infinitive, the most common periphrastic construction in Latin American Spanish.
- Gerund Usage and RestrictionsB1 — The Spanish gerund describes actions in progress or adverbial manner but cannot be used as an adjective, a noun, or after prepositions.
- Aspect (Completed vs Ongoing Action)B1 — Grammatical aspect tells you whether an action is bounded or flowing