ir + Gerund

Gradual Progress: Ir + Gerund

Level 4

Ir + gerund shows something developing step by step: O avó vai mellorando (Grandpa is gradually getting better). Compare vai mellorar (he is going to get better).

How It Works

Form

Any tense of ir + gerund: vai mellorando, ía subindo, foron chegando, imos aprendendo.

Meanings

  • Gradual change: A auga ía subindo (the water kept rising).
  • One after another: Os convidados foron chegando ao longo da tarde.
  • Understanding over time: Co tempo fun entendendo por que o fixera.
  • Start doing it now, in commands: Vaite preparando (start getting ready).

Do not confuse

  • Vai mellorar: he is going to get better (future, ir + infinitive).
  • Vai mellorando: he is getting better little by little (progress now).
  • Está mellorando: he is getting better (at this time, with no idea of steps).
  • Andar + gerund: activity spread out here and there, not steady progress.

Pronouns

A pronoun can go with ir or with the gerund: vaise achegando or vai achegándose (it is getting closer). In commands it attaches to ir: Vaite preparando.

Examples (6)

  1. O avó vai mellorando pouco a pouco.

    Grandpa is gradually getting better.

    Pouco a pouco reinforces the step-by-step meaning.

  2. Imos aprendendo un pouco cada día.

    We are learning a little every day.

  3. Os convidados foron chegando ao longo da tarde.

    The guests arrived one after another throughout the afternoon.

    With a plural subject, ir + gerund means the arrivals happened one by one.

  4. Vaite preparando, que saímos en dez minutos.

    Start getting ready, because we are leaving in ten minutes.

    In a command, ir + gerund means "start doing it now".

  5. A auga do río ía subindo sen parar.

    The river water kept rising steadily.

  6. Co tempo fun entendendo por que o fixera.

    Over time I came to understand why he had done it.

    Fixera is the antepretérito: he had done it before I understood.

Common Mistakes

  • Using ir + infinitive for an improvement that is already under way.

    Desde a operación, o avó vai mellorar pouco a pouco.
    Desde a operación, o avó vai mellorando pouco a pouco.

    Desde a operación says the improvement has already started, so it needs ir + gerund. Vai mellorar only predicts a change in the future.

How It Connects

Tap a pattern to see what it builds on and what it leads to.

ir + GerundLevel 4Gradual Progress: Ir + Gerund

Learn This First

Ir with a gerund presents gradual progress or successive events.

Words in This Pattern