Common verbal periphrases: soler, volver a, empezar a, dejar de, seguir + gerund

Suelo desayunar café.I usually have coffee for breakfast.

Spanish has a small set of everyday two-verb constructions — a conjugated verb followed by an infinitive or a gerund — that add a shade of meaning no single verb captures on its own: usually, again, starting to, stopping, still doing. These are called verbal periphrases, and five of the most common are worth knowing as a set.

Quick shortcut: soler + infinitive (usually do), volver a + infinitive (do again), empezar a + infinitive (start doing), dejar de + infinitive (stop doing), seguir + gerund (still be doing). Only the conjugated first verb changes with the subject; the second verb form never does.

Soler + infinitive: what you usually do

Soler describes a habit or a general tendency — what usually happens, without saying it every single time:

Suelo desayunar café. (I usually have coffee for breakfast.) Solemos ir al cine los sábados. (We usually go to the movies on Saturdays.)

Soler is mostly used in the present and the imperfect (solía desayunar café — "I used to have coffee for breakfast"); it's rarely conjugated in other tenses. There's no separate word for "usually" needed alongside it — soler already carries that meaning.

Volver a + infinitive: doing something again

Volver a + infinitive says an action happens once more, repeating something that already happened before:

Volvió a llamar. (He called again.) No vuelvas a llegar tarde. (Don't be late again.)

This is a much shorter, more natural way to say "again" than adding otra vez to every sentence — though the two can combine for extra emphasis (Volvió a llamar otra vez).

Empezar a + infinitive: starting an action

Empezar a + infinitive marks the beginning of an action:

Empezó a llover. (It started to rain.) Empecé a estudiar español el año pasado. (I started studying Spanish last year.)

Comenzar a + infinitive works the same way and is common in more formal or written Spanish.

Dejar de + infinitive: stopping an action

Dejar de + infinitive says an action stops or someone quits doing it:

Dejó de fumar. (He stopped smoking.) Dejamos de trabajar a las seis. (We stop working at six.)

Watch the negative in a negative command: no dejes de + infinitive doesn't literally mean "keep not doing X" — in that exhortative context, it means "be sure to do X" or "don't forget to do X":

No dejes de escribirme. (Be sure to write to me. / Don't forget to write to me.)

Outside a command, no dejar de keeps its ordinary continuative sense — "not stop doing X": No deja de llover. (It doesn't stop raining.)

Seguir + gerund: still doing something

Unlike the other four, seguir pairs with a gerund, not an infinitive — the same gerund form used in estar + gerund. It says an action is still going on:

Sigue trabajando aquí. (He still works here / He's still working here.) Seguimos esperando una respuesta. (We're still waiting for an answer.)

✅ Sigue trabajando aquí, never ❌ Sigue trabajar aquí — seguir takes the gerund, not the infinitive.

Where a pronoun goes

With any of these periphrases, an object or reflexive pronoun can go before the whole construction or attach to the end of the infinitive or gerund — both are correct, exactly as with other infinitive/gerund constructions:

Suele levantarse temprano. / Se suele levantar temprano. (He usually gets up early — both correct.) Sigue haciéndolo. / Lo sigue haciendo. (He's still doing it — both correct.)

Common mistakes

• ❌ Sigue trabajar aquí → ✅ Sigue trabajando aquí. (seguir takes a gerund, not an infinitive — the other four periphrases here take the infinitive, but seguir doesn't.)
• ❌ Suelo desayuné café → ✅ Suelo desayunar café. (the second verb after soler stays in the infinitive; it never gets its own separate conjugation.)
• ❌ No dejes de escribirme understood as "keep not writing to me" → ✅ in a negative command it means "be sure to write to me" — only in that exhortative context, not as a general rule for no dejar de.

Quick check

1. Complete with soler: Ellos ___ (soler) cenar tarde.
2. Rewrite using volver a: Perdió las llaves otra vez.
3. Complete with the right form: Empezó a ___ (llover) por la tarde.
4. Why is Sigue trabajar aquí wrong, and how should it read?

Key takeaways

• Soler + infinitive = usually do; mostly used in the present and the imperfect.
• Volver a + infinitive = do again — a shorter, more natural alternative to adding otra vez every time.
• Empezar a + infinitive = start doing; comenzar a works the same way in more formal Spanish.
• Dejar de + infinitive = stop doing; in a negative command, no dejes de + infinitive means "be sure to," not "keep not doing X" — outside a command it keeps its literal continuative sense.
• Seguir + gerund (not infinitive) = still be doing.
• Only the first, conjugated verb changes with the subject; the infinitive or gerund never does, and any object pronoun can go before the whole construction or attach to its end.