When to Use the French Gerund: Grammar Rules and Exercises

The formation of the gerund in French is very simple: EN + present participle.

It goes without saying, however, that to fully understand this topic you need to know the present participle in French, so let's take a step back: how is it formed?

To form the present participle of a verb in French, we take its first-person plural form ( nous ) of the present indicative and remove the -ONS ending. To the remaining stem, we add the ending -ANT, which is similar to the Italian translation -ante/-ente.

Caution: it is important to choose the first person plural because otherwise there could be extra letters and irregularities, as would happen with the verb attendre .

Example :

JOUER → nous JOUONS → JOUANT = player, the one who plays

ATTENDRE → nous ATTENDONS → ATTENDANT = waiting, one who waits

Consequently, for the same verbs the French gerund would be:

EN JOUANT = playing

EN ATTENDANT = waiting

Irregular verbs in the gerund form

Every rule has its exceptions, and as often happens, it's the most common verbs that change the game. The verbs "to be" and "to have" in French both have irregular present participles, namely:

être → étant

avoir → ayant

Consequently, the gerund will become:

EN ÉTANT = being

EN AYANT = having

Even the verb SAVOIR , very similar to avoir in spelling, presents an irregularity, becoming EN SACHANT in the gerund.

All other verbs form the gérondif in the way we've explained, without any other exceptions. Even those that appear "odd" with respect to their infinitive form are actually following the rule because they adhere to the first person plural. This is why we see a "y" in CROYANT even though the infinitive is CROIRE: because it starts with nous CROYONS .

While these aren't exceptions, some verbs change slightly for reasons of euphoric pronunciation. This happens with:

• Some first-person plural verbs end in -ER , that is, those that add an -e between the stem and the -ONS ending in the first-person plural. This additional letter also appears in the gerund:
  
  BOUGER → nous BOUG E ONS → EN BOUG E ANT (moving)
  MANGER → nous MANG E ONS → EN MANG E ANT (eating)
• Verbs that add an -Ç between the root and the ending for the formation of the present indicative will also do so for the formation of the gerund:
  
  REMPLACER → nous REMPLA Ç ONS → EN REMPLA Ç ANT (replacing)
  COMMENCER → nous COMMEN Ç ONS → EN COMMEN Ç ANT (beginning)

Now that we've learned to recognize it, let's see when it's appropriate to use the gerund in French. As in Italian, the gerund is primarily used to express simultaneity , that is, when two or more actions are taking place at the same time. Be careful, though, because it's not used to translate the present continuous : for that, there will instead be a specific construction with the verb etre + en train de + infinitive verb .

That said, we use the gerund in French for :

• Indicating the simultaneity of one action with respect to another , provided that the two actions share the same subject:
  
  Comme d'habitude, tu parles en mangeant . = As usual, you talk while eating .
  
  Sophie a écrit une lettre en écoutant de la musique. = Sophie wrote a letter while listening to music.
  
  As in Italian, depending on which one sounds better and the sentence, we can replace the gerund with the word pendant , which means while :
  
  En marchant . = While walking , you look at the sky. Pendant
  
  que vous marchez, vous regardez le ciel. = While walking , you look at the sky.
• Indicate the cause of an action, when the sentence allows it:
  
  Ils sont tombés en courant . = They fell while running (because they were running)
  
  Je paie les factures en travaillant honnêtement. = I pay my bills by working honestly .
• Express a condition :
  
  You want to hear me in prenant le médicament. = You will feel better by taking the medicine.
  
  If you behave well in the class you will get excellent results. = By behaving well the class will achieve excellent results.

That's all you need to know about the gerund in French. As you can see, despite it being an intermediate-level topic, it's not difficult at all; in fact, you only need to grasp the mechanism for a moment to remember it! If you'd like to delve even deeper into the topic, we recommend taking our online French course, taught by expert, native-speaker teachers who will help you put what you've learned into practice and develop fluency.

But first, why not see how much you already know? Here are a couple of exercises on the gerund in French to test your skills: you'll find the solutions below, but don't peek until you've completed them!

Exercise 1: Form the gerund of the following verbs in French

AIMER (love) =
ACHETER (buy) =
MARCHER (walk) =

AVOIR (to have) =

DISPARAÎTRE (to disappear)

CROIRE (to believe)

RECOMMENCER (start again) =

MANGER (to eat) =

BOIRE (to drink) =

DÉCOUVRIR (to discover) =

Exercise 2 : Complete the sentences as appropriate, using the gerund of the verb in brackets (découvrir).

• _________ tout cela, j'ai compris pourquoi tu agis ainsi. = Discovering all this, I understood why you were behaving like that.
• Parler _______ est impoli. = Talking while eating is rude.
• _____________, j'ai feint d'être surpris. = Even though I knew it, I pretended to be surprised.
• We had thought that we should come to ______ the party. = We thought we should come while the party was on.
• _________ et en plaisantant, il était tard. = Laughing and joking, it got late.
• ____________ en savoir plus, c'est ma pensée du moment. = While I wait to learn more, this is what I think at the moment.
• ______ un enfant, j'ai beaucoup de responsabilités. = Having a child, I have many responsibilities.
• After a day, you can eat ________ the podcast. = Every day eat while listening to a podcast.
• Running-related injuries are very common among children.
• _________ from the boys all the days, you will take the poids. = By drinking drinks every day you will gain weight.