The German Gerund: Common Phrases and When to Use Them

12/22/2025 Learning & Grammer created by Sprachcaffe Team

Gerund or infinitive? Everything you need to know about the German gerund | We've already established that the German language isn't the easiest for us Italians to learn: being an inflected language, it has completely different rules! But after tackling difficult topics like irregular verbs, learning the German gerund will be a walk in the park.

Or maybe not, but almost: the truth is that the Gerund does not exist in German , but there are different ways to translate what, in Italian, is the meaning that the gerund is intended to express.

Maybe you're getting scared by saying it like that, imagining who knows what constructs you'll have to learn, but you'll see that it's actually simpler than you think.

To help you understand better, this Sprachcaffe guide is enriched with German phrases with gerunds, because one of the best ways to learn a concept in a foreign language is to see it in context.

And what's another very effective way? Naturally, going on one of our study holidays in Germany—whether in Munich or Frankfurt am Main—you'll have the opportunity to fully immerse yourself in the language and grasp every nuance.

German Gerund: How is it Formed?

We've already given you a little preview, but now it's time to delve deeper: what does it mean that the gerund doesn't exist in German ?

Exactly this: in the German language we do not have a counterpart to our gerund form, as we do in Spanish or French.

What we have instead is a construct that serves to translate its exact meaning, and is therefore used to form the progressive form of a verb starting from the verb itself in the present tense.

To do this we need to use the word GERADE , an adverb that literally means "at the moment".

This helps give context to the present tense verb, giving more specificity about the time in which the indicated action occurs: it is not just in the present, but right now.

Example:

Sprichst Du gerade mit Vera? = Are you talking to Vera?

The question can also be translated as: Are you talking to Vera right now?

The rule is that the adverb gerade should always be placed after the verb in the present tense.

When is the Gerund used in German?

Just like in other languages, the gerund in German is used to express an action that is happening at the exact moment of speaking, whether in the present, past, or future.

For this "standard" usage, as we have seen, we use the verb in the present tense accompanied by the adverb gerade.

This isn't the only case where the gerund is used in German, however. We also use it for:

to talk about two actions that occur at the same time, or to express contemporaneity
to talk about two actions that occur at the same time, but of which one interrupts the other
talking about a condition , that is, sentences that can be translated as "if… then"
express a cause , that is, in sentences that can be translated as "since… then"
express consequence , that is, in sentences that can be translated as "when… then"
express the way in which an action is performed

Let's delve into the key points of using the German gerund to better understand the topic.

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Gerund in German: When it Expresses Contemporaneity

Contemporaneity is one of the most common uses, and there are three different situations that can occur in German.

The first is when two actions happen at the same time, such as:

You open the door for me saying that…

Instead of using gerade, in German this sentence would simply become:

You open the door for me and say that… → Du öffnest mir die Tür, indem du sagst, dass...

Another situation of contemporaneity is when the gerund expresses a consequence:

When going on a journey (When going on a journey), one must be careful.

Here too, we maintain the use of "when" in German:

Wenn man auf Reisen geht, muss man vorsichtig sein.

Finally, another case in which the German gerund expresses contemporaneity is when two actions occur at the same time, but one interrupts the other.

I was watching TV, when…

Of course, we can use the adverb gerade in this case too, although it could create ambiguity: " Ich habe gerade ferngesehen ", in fact, can also mean "I just watched TV", in the sense that I have just finished watching it.

The difference is quite obvious from the context, but you could still get around the problem by choosing to use another type of sentence, such as:

Ich war gerade dabei… = I was right there, when…

This way, no misunderstandings arise.

When the Gerund in German Expresses a Condition

When we want to express a condition in Italian, we often use the gerund:

Hurrying up/ If you hurry up, you can still finish the job.

Here in German we tend not to use gerade, but to use "quando" as we saw before.

Wenn Sie sich beeilen, können Sie den Job beenden.

When the German Gerund Expresses the Way

The last case we see of the gerund in German is when there is a verb that expresses the way in which another action occurs.

Something like:

Smiling, he told me that…

In this case the gerund answers the question: "How (did he tell me)?" and can be translated into German with the Partizip I form, that is, the present participle.

"Er sagte mir lächelnd, dass..."

In fact, even in Italian we could say "Sorridente, mi disse che..." (Sorridente, mi disse che…), because it is a grammatically correct form, even if it is not used very often in everyday speech.

That said, the German gerund holds no further secrets for you; in fact, the topic is practically over! As we mentioned, it's not too difficult, but it does take a bit of practice to get into the mechanics of this language and learn how to translate the gerund into German appropriately for the sentence you're faced with.

Continue studying this language to improve your skills, and take our online German course to receive support and guidance from experienced, native-speaker teachers ready to converse with you.

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