Aprendió español viendo películas.He learned Spanish by watching movies.
Outside of estar + gerundio, the gerundio can stand on its own to say how something happens or by what means it happens — doing the job English does with "by + -ing" or a plain "-ing" clause.
Quick shortcut: a bare gerundio (no estar, no preposition) placed after the main verb answers "how?": Aprendió español + viendo películas → Aprendió español viendo películas. It's formed the same way as in estar + gerundio: regularly -ando for -ar verbs, -iendo for -er/-ir verbs, with the same spelling/stem-change irregulars (leyendo, durmiendo, pidiendo…) covered there.
Manner: describing how an action happens
A gerundio right after the main verb can describe the manner of that action — what it looked or sounded like as it happened:
Salió corriendo. (He left running / He ran out.) Habló llorando. (She spoke crying / while crying.) Me miró sonriendo. (She looked at me smiling.)
The subject doing the gerundio's action is the same subject as the main verb — the person who salió is the same person who corrió.
Means: describing by what means something is achieved
The same bare gerundio also answers "by doing what?" — where English needs the preposition "by," Spanish uses no preposition at all:
Aprendió español viendo películas. (He learned Spanish by watching movies.) Ahorra dinero cocinando en casa. (She saves money by cooking at home.) Mejoró su pronunciación practicando todos los días. (He improved his pronunciation by practicing every day.)
✅ Aprendió español viendo películas, never ❌ Aprendió español por viendo películas or ❌ Aprendió español con viendo películas — the gerundio itself carries the "by means of" sense; no preposition goes in front of it.
Where it sits in the sentence
The gerund phrase usually comes right after the clause it modifies, but it can also open the sentence for extra emphasis, set off by a comma:
Consiguió el ascenso trabajando duro. / Trabajando duro, consiguió el ascenso. (Both: He got the promotion by working hard.)
What the gerundio can't do here
This adverbial gerundio's job is to modify a verb, not to name or describe a thing. After a preposition, or as the subject or object of a sentence, Spanish needs the infinitive instead (see estar + gerundio for that contrast).
It also can't step in as a plain, specifying adjective attached to a noun (like English "a book explaining the problem") — for that, Spanish uses a relative clause (que + verb): un libro que explica el problema, not un libro explicando el problema. This is different from a gerundio placed right after the object of a perception verb like ver or oír, describing what that object was doing at that moment — Vi a un niño jugando en el parque (I saw a child playing in the park) is completely normal, because there the gerundio still describes an ongoing action, not the noun itself.
Common mistakes
- ❌ un libro explicando el problema → ✅ un libro que explica el problema (a gerundio can't specify or describe a noun the way an adjective or relative clause does — use que + a conjugated verb instead. Compare Vi a un niño jugando, which is fine: there the gerundio describes an action in progress, not the noun.)
- ❌ Aprendió español por viendo películas → ✅ Aprendió español viendo películas. (no preposition before the gerundio when it expresses means — the bare gerundio already means "by doing.")
- ❌ Prefiero estudiando en la biblioteca → ✅ Prefiero estudiar en la biblioteca. (after another verb, Spanish uses the infinitive, not the gerundio, to say what someone prefers/wants/needs to do.)
Quick check
- Complete with a gerundio: Ella ganó el concurso ___ (practicar) todos los días.
- Why is una carta explicando el problema often corrected to una carta que explica el problema?
- Rewrite starting with the gerund phrase for emphasis: Consiguió el puesto estudiando mucho.
- Why is ❌ Aprendí mucho con viajando wrong, and how should it read?
Show answers
- Ella ganó el concurso practicando todos los días.
- The gerundio can't directly modify a noun like an adjective — a relative clause with que is the standard way to describe carta here.
- Estudiando mucho, consiguió el puesto.
- No preposition goes before an adverbial gerundio of means — it should be Aprendí mucho viajando.
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Key takeaways
- A bare gerundio after a verb can answer "how?" — manner (salió corriendo) or means (aprendió viendo películas).
- No preposition goes in front of it for the "by means of" sense — the gerundio alone does that job.
- It can open the sentence, set off by a comma, for extra emphasis.
- It can't specify or describe a noun like an adjective (use que + verb for that) — but it's fine right after the object of a perception verb like ver/oír, describing an action in progress.