ir a + inf, seguir + gerundio, acabar de: the periphrases that power fluent Spanish
Every Spanish verb has three non-personal forms — and each plugs into different structures.
Infinitivo: hablar, comer, vivir — the dictionary form
Gerundio: hablando, comiendo, viviendo — the -ing form
Participio: hablado, comido, vivido — the -ed/-en form
Combined with helper verbs, they form perífrasis verbales — the secret to natural-sounding Spanish.
Two infinitive periphrases bracket the present: what is about to happen and what just happened.
Voy a llamarte esta noche. (I am going to call you tonight.)
Acabo de llegar. (I have JUST arrived.)
Acabar de is a gem: English needs "just" + perfect; Spanish needs only acabo de + infinitive. Acabo de comer = I've just eaten.
Two gerund periphrases express continuation — where English says "still" or "have been ...ing".
Sigo estudiando español. (I am STILL studying Spanish.)
Llevo dos años viviendo aquí. (I have been living here for two years.)
Llevar + time + gerundio replaces a whole English perfect-continuous clause. Learn it as a pattern: llevo + duración + -ndo.
Repetition and stopping — two more high-frequency periphrases.
He vuelto a ver esa serie. (I have watched that series AGAIN.)
Dejé de fumar hace un año. (I STOPPED smoking a year ago.)
volver a + inf = to do again · dejar de + inf = to stop doing. Both beat clumsy literal translations (otra vez, parar...).
The biggest English-speaker trap: after prepositions and as a subject, English uses -ing but Spanish uses the infinitive.
Antes de salir, cierra las ventanas. (Before leavING...)
Nadar es bueno para la espalda. (SwimmING is good for your back.)
Gracias por venir. (Thanks for comING.)
Rule: preposition + infinitive, subject = infinitive. "Nadando es bueno" is the give-away error of an English speaker.
Traps for English speakers
These are the errors English speakers make most often.