Question 1

In English, we can say 'continue to do', so why is it continúan haciendo and not continúan a hacer?

Accepted Answer

In Spanish, the verbs continuar and seguir must be followed directly by a gerund (the -ando or -iendo form) to express that an action is continuing. You cannot use the infinitive (hacer) or a preposition like a here.

Question 2

Could I use siguen instead of continúan in this sentence?

Accepted Answer

Yes, absolutely! Los profesores siguen haciendo... means exactly the same thing. Seguir and continuar are generally interchangeable when used with a gerund to talk about continuing an action, though seguir is often a bit more common in everyday spoken Spanish.

Question 3

Why does continúan have an accent mark on the u?

Accepted Answer

The accent mark is there to break a diphthong (a combination of two vowels). Without the accent, the stress would naturally fall on the second-to-last syllable together (con-ti-NUA-n). Putting the accent on the ú separates the u and the a into two different syllables, ensuring the spoken stress lands correctly on the u: con-ti-NÚ-an.

Question 4

English usually says 'doing academic research' without 'the'. Why does Spanish use la here?

Accepted Answer

Spanish uses definite articles (el, la, los, las) much more frequently than English, especially with nouns representing general concepts, fields of study, or things in their entirety. In English we drop 'the' for general 'academic research', but Spanish requires la investigación. (Of course, if they are doing a specific, previously mentioned research project, both languages would use 'the' / la).

Los profesores continúan haciendo la investigación académica.

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