One of the English grammar points that drives us non-native speakers crazy is the use of gerunds after “to.” This is particularly tricky for Spaniards because “to” can be translated into just a couple of prepositions with very similar meanings: intention and purpose, which actually make a big difference in English but not in Spanish. For example, there are two “tos” in this statement:
"I want to learn new stuff. That's why I'm committed to reading every day."
The first “to” is part of the infinitive of "learn," and the second is a preposition followed by a gerund. The problem is that I'd use two infinitives to express that truism in Spanish. So, how do you tell the difference? No idea. The line between intention and purpose is really blurred in my mind. The same confusion applies to telling which "to" is which.
I'm writing this post as a Hail Mary to understand the issue, but I've come to the conclusion that there's no real solution to fixing this problem. I lack the intuition to consistently get it right. Does that worry me? Yes, a little, because when grammar explanations don't work, as in this case, you have to throw caution to the wind and add “-ings" all around, and see what happens. I guess I’ll get better thanks to practicing, reading, and listening to the language. Maybe ten more years will help me pick up when a gerund works as a noun.
As far as I know, the gerund is always either a noun or adjective. An explanation that relies on a native's intuition won't help, but here it is anyway.
By the way, the to doesn't pair with the gerund but with the phrasal verb commit to. By replacing the gerund with a pronoun, you can see it really is just a noun. But it's a noun you modify with adverbs instead of adjectives (edit: this used to incorrectly say 'verbs').
And it's a noun that can have a subject and objects.
The subject of a gerund is in the 'dative' case, a case that looks exactly like the accusative (me, him, her...). It's an old holdover from German. Confusing!
@schmamie Amaziiiing!! haha Thank you so much, Amie! It never occurred to me to replace the verb with a pronoun instead of a noun, which didn't always work for me. Truly appreciate your explanation. It helps a lot to see it broken down like this.
Remember, a gerund is never a verb! Here's something to blow your mind:
Grammatically speaking, there is no difference between these sentences, right? Here, the gerund is an adjective. One (black) is a state, while the other (running) is an action, but they both describe the dog. It's just confusing because estar and ser are both is in English.
It's still an adjective. This shows why we sometimes use the 'continuous tense' to describe things that happen habitually. Finally,
Gerunds are really powerful once you get used to them, promise!
I really need to try that. I know there's something beyond the subject-verb-object norm because I've seen and heard it, but I don't know how to shape it. I guess we can't help but see our target languages through the lens of our own. Thank you so much. By the way, I thought of you when I watched this YouTube short.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/gae2dmPsdSA