How to Use the French Gérondif (-ant) in Sentences

You see en parlant, en mangeant, en faisant in French and think, “So… is this the same as English -ing?” Not quite. That’s where a lot of learners get tripped up. The French gérondif looks simple, but if you use it like English, you’ll make sentences that sound off fast.

Quick answer: the French gérondif is usually en + present participle. You use it to show how, when, or while something happens: Il apprend le français en regardant des films. (He learns French by watching films.) It’s not the same as every English -ing form, and it’s not identical to the plain French present participle either.

French uses -ant forms in a more restricted way than English. That’s why learners often overuse them in writing and avoid them in speech. If you want to use the gérondif naturally, focus on a few high-frequency patterns, then drill them actively until they come out under pressure. That’s exactly why we built VerbPal around active production rather than recognition: seeing en parlant is easy; producing it correctly in a real sentence is the skill that matters.

What is the French gérondif?

The gérondif is a verb form built with en + present participle. It usually expresses an action that happens at the same time as the main verb, or explains how that action happens.

Compare:

• Il écoute de la musique en travaillant. (He listens to music while working.) 🔊
• Elle a appris en pratiquant tous les jours. (She learned by practising every day.) 🔊

In modern French, the gérondif is common enough to matter, but it is not a catch-all translation for English -ing. In corpus-based usage, forms like en disant, en faisant, en parlant, en arrivant, and en passant are especially frequent because they express everyday relationships between actions. In VerbPal, those are exactly the kinds of high-frequency forms we want learners to type and retrieve early, because common patterns pay off faster than obscure ones.

Quick rule

If you can paraphrase the sentence as:

• while doing
• by doing
• when doing
• as you do

…then the gérondif may work.

What it does not do

It does not usually replace:

• an infinitive after another verb
• a noun-like gerund in English
• every subordinate clause
• a subject with a different doer

So:

• English: “Swimming is fun.”
• French: Nager, c’est amusant. (Swimming is fun.)
• Not: En nageant est amusant. (Incorrect.)

Pro Tip: When you see English -ing, don’t translate automatically. First ask: “Is this while/by doing, or is it really an infinitive or noun idea?” That one pause will save you a lot of mistakes.

How to form the French gérondif

Most of the time, formation is straightforward:

1. Take the nous form of the present tense
2. Remove -ons
3. Add -ant
4. Put en in front

Examples:

• nous parlons → parlant → en parlant
• nous finissons → finissant → en finissant
• nous attendons → attendant → en attendant

Regular examples

Notice the spelling:

• manger keeps the e: mangeant
• commencer keeps the cedilla: commençant

The three main irregular forms

These are the ones you should memorise early:

• avoir → ayant → en ayant
• être → étant → en étant
• savoir → sachant → en sachant

Examples:

• En ayant plus de temps, je lirais davantage. (If I had more time / by having more time, I would read more.)
• En étant honnête, tu gagneras leur confiance. (By being honest, you’ll earn their trust.)
• En sachant cela, il a changé d’avis. (Knowing that, he changed his mind.)

Pro Tip: Don’t memorise the gérondif as an isolated list. Memorise it through the nous form. That gives you a reusable pattern for dozens of verbs.

When to use the French gérondif in sentences

This is where the form becomes useful. The gérondif mainly does four jobs.

1. To show simultaneous actions: “while doing”

This is the most common use.

• Elle téléphone en marchant. (She talks on the phone while walking.) 🔊
• Je révise en écoutant la radio. (I review while listening to the radio.) 🔊

The two actions happen at the same time.

2. To show means or method: “by doing”

• Il a progressé en pratiquant tous les jours. (He improved by practising every day.)
• On apprend beaucoup en faisant des erreurs. (You learn a lot by making mistakes.)

This use is especially helpful in advice, study routines, and explanations.

3. To show cause or circumstance: “as / since / when doing”

• En voyant le prix, j’ai changé d’avis. (On seeing the price / When I saw the price, I changed my mind.)
• En travaillant autant, tu vas te fatiguer. (By working that much / If you work that much, you’ll get tired.)

This use can overlap with English when, on, by, or as depending on context.

4. To show contrast with tout en

Add tout before the gérondif to mean while still, even while, or although doing.

• Il souriait tout en étant stressé. (He was smiling even while being stressed / although he was stressed.)
• Elle a refusé tout en restant polie. (She refused while remaining polite.)

This pattern is elegant and common in written French.

When we coach learners on this structure in VerbPal, we usually start with while doing before expanding to the more abstract meanings. That sequence is more efficient, and our spaced repetition system based on the SM-2 algorithm helps those high-value patterns come back right before they fade.

Pro Tip: Start with one reliable meaning: while doing. Once that feels automatic, expand to by doing and tout en + -ant.

French gérondif vs present participle: what’s the difference?

This is one of the biggest sources of confusion. The gérondif and the present participle often look similar because both use the -ant form. But they are not always interchangeable.

The short version

• Present participle = the bare -ant form: parlant, faisant, sachant
• Gérondif = en + -ant: en parlant, en faisant, en sachant

Why that matters

The gérondif usually functions adverbially. It modifies the action of the main verb.

• Il apprend en lisant. (He learns by reading.)

The present participle can act more like a verbal adjective or a reduced clause, especially in formal writing.

• Les étudiants parlant français peuvent entrer. (The students speaking French may enter.)

That sentence is not the same as:

• Les étudiants peuvent entrer en parlant français. (The students may enter by speaking French.)

The second sentence sounds odd because it suggests they may enter by speaking French, which changes the meaning.

A practical distinction

Use the gérondif when you want to say:

• while doing
• by doing
• on doing

Use the present participle without en mostly in:

• formal written French
• adjective-like descriptions
• fixed structures

Here is the contrast more clearly:

Also watch for adjectives ending in -ant

Some words that look verbal are now common adjectives:

• intéressant (interesting)
• fatigant (tiring)
• amusant (funny/amusing)

These are not gérondifs.

If this whole zone feels blurry, that’s normal. English speakers often map all -ing forms together, but French splits them across several structures. That’s also why articles like our guide to French pronunciation and spelling mismatch matter: forms that look similar on the page often behave differently in real usage. It’s also why a serious verb tool matters: VerbPal covers not just forms like the gérondif, but the wider system around them — all major tenses, irregulars, reflexives, and the subjunctive — so you learn where each pattern belongs.

Pro Tip: If you can insert en naturally and keep the meaning while/by doing, you probably want the gérondif. If the -ant form describes a noun, you probably don’t.

The same-subject rule: the mistake learners make most

In standard French, the subject of the gérondif is normally the same as the subject of the main verb.

Correct:

• Elle a appris le français en regardant des séries. (She learned French by watching series.)

Here, she is doing both actions.

Incorrect or awkward:

• En regardant la télé, le téléphone a sonné. (Incorrect: literally, “While watching TV, the phone rang.”)

This sounds wrong because the phone was not watching TV.

A better version:

• Je regardais la télé quand le téléphone a sonné. (I was watching TV when the phone rang.)
• En regardant la télé, j’ai entendu le téléphone sonner. (While watching TV, I heard the phone ring.)

This rule matters more than many learners realise. If you ignore it, you create dangling structures that feel un-French very quickly.

Another common bad translation

English: “Driving to work, the rain started.”

French should not be:

• En conduisant au travail, la pluie a commencé. (Incorrect.)

Better:

• Pendant que je conduisais au travail, il a commencé à pleuvoir. (While I was driving to work, it started to rain.)
• En allant au travail en voiture, j’ai vu qu’il commençait à pleuvoir. (While driving to work, I saw that it was starting to rain.)

Pro Tip: After writing a gérondif sentence, ask: “Who is doing the en + -ant action?” If the answer is not the main subject, rewrite the sentence.

Common mistakes with the French gérondif

Let’s clean up the errors that show up again and again.

1. Using it for every English -ing form

English: “Learning French takes time.”

Correct French:

• Apprendre le français prend du temps. (Learning French takes time.)

Not:

• En apprenant le français prend du temps. (Incorrect.)

Why? Because English uses learning as a noun-like subject here. French prefers the infinitive.

2. Forgetting en

Learners often write the present participle when they really need the gérondif.

• Wrong for everyday meaning: Il apprend parlant avec des natifs. (Incorrect.)
• Correct: Il apprend en parlant avec des natifs. (He learns by speaking with native speakers.)

3. Using the wrong subject

As above:

• Awkward: En arrivant à Paris, la tour Eiffel était magnifique. (Awkward/incorrect structure.)
• Better: En arrivant à Paris, j’ai trouvé la tour Eiffel magnifique. (On arriving in Paris, I found the Eiffel Tower magnificent.)

4. Overusing it in translation-heavy writing

French uses the gérondif, but not as obsessively as English uses -ing. Sometimes a subordinate clause is more natural.

Instead of forcing:

• En voulant acheter du pain, en voyant la queue, en pensant au temps… (While wanting to buy bread, seeing the line, thinking about the weather…)

You may want:

• Quand j’ai voulu acheter du pain, j’ai vu la queue et j’ai pensé au temps… (When I wanted to buy bread, I saw the line and thought about the weather…)

Natural French values clarity over clever compression.

5. Confusing it with the progressive in English

English says:

• “I am eating.”

French does not usually say:

• Je suis en mangeant. (Incorrect.)

Correct French:

• Je mange. (I’m eating.)
• Sometimes: Je suis en train de manger. (I am in the middle of eating.)

This is a major trap.

6. Forgetting fixed high-frequency forms

Some gérondifs come up constantly:

• en disant (by saying / while saying)
• en faisant (by doing / while doing)
• en allant (while going)
• en venant (while coming)
• en attendant (while waiting / in the meantime)
• en passant (while passing / by the way, in some contexts)

If you know these cold, you’ll understand and produce a huge chunk of real French much faster. Frequency studies consistently show that a small set of common verbs carries a disproportionate share of everyday speech, which is why we recommend mastering high-frequency forms first rather than trying to learn every -ant form alphabetically. Our article on the 100 most common French verbs is a good companion if you want to prioritise.

Pro Tip: Build your first gérondif deck around 10 verbs only: faire, dire, parler, regarder, aller, venir, attendre, savoir, être, avoir. That gives you high-frequency coverage fast.

How to sound natural with the gérondif

Knowing the rule is one thing. Using it like a real speaker is another.

Start with chunks, not abstract grammar

Memorise whole expressions:

• en fait is not a gérondif, but it reminds you that chunks matter
• en attendant (in the meantime / while waiting)
• en passant (by the way / while passing)
• tout en disant que… (while saying that…)
• en faisant attention (by being careful)
• en parlant de… (speaking of…)

Examples:

• En attendant, on peut commencer. (In the meantime, we can start.)
• En parlant de ça, tu as vu son message ? (Speaking of that, did you see his message?)
• Tu apprendras plus vite en faisant attention aux verbes fréquents. (You’ll learn faster by paying attention to frequent verbs.)

Use it more in certain contexts

The gérondif appears often in:

• instructions
• explanations
• narration
• formal and semi-formal writing
• spoken transitions like en parlant de ça

It appears less in beginner-style direct speech than many textbooks suggest. Native speakers often choose simpler finite clauses instead.

Practise production, not just recognition

If you only read examples, you’ll understand the form but still freeze when you need it. We built VerbPal around this exact problem. Our drills push you to produce forms under time pressure, and Lexi pops up with pattern-based reminders during sessions so you remember why en faisant works but je suis en faisant does not. Because VerbPal covers the full French verb system — including irregulars, reflexives, and the subjunctive — you’re not learning the gérondif in isolation. Combined with spaced repetition, that’s much more effective than rereading a rule once and hoping it sticks. If you want a broader system, pair this with our guide on moving French verbs from passive study to active speaking.

A simple 5-minute drill

Take one main clause and swap in different gérondifs:

• J’apprends le français… (I’m learning French…)
  • …en lisant. (…by reading.)
  • …en écoutant. (…by listening.)
  • …en parlant. (…by speaking.)
  • …en faisant des erreurs. (…by making mistakes.)
  • …en révisant tous les jours. (…by reviewing every day.)

Then do the same with:

• Il progresse… (He’s improving…)
• Nous avons compris… (We understood…)
• Elle s’est améliorée… (She improved…)

This kind of pattern drill is exactly what works for adult learners: short, focused, repeatable. If you want structure, our post on how to build a 10-minute French verb drill routine fits perfectly here.

Pro Tip: Don’t try to “master the gérondif.” Master 15 useful sentence chunks and recycle them until they come out automatically.

A few high-value examples to remember

If you only remember a handful, make them these:

• Il apprend en lisant. (He learns by reading.)
• Elle travaille en écoutant de la musique. (She works while listening to music.)
• En arrivant, j’ai compris le problème. (On arriving, I understood the problem.)
• Tout en sachant la vérité, il n’a rien dit. (Even while knowing the truth, he said nothing.)
• En faisant attention, tu éviteras beaucoup d’erreurs. (By paying attention, you’ll avoid many mistakes.)
• En parlant français tous les jours, on progresse vite. (By speaking French every day, you improve quickly.)

If you want to go deeper on related verb patterns, especially where English instincts lead you astray, our posts on common false friends in French verbs and why immersion fails without a verb foundation are worth your time too.

Pro Tip: Copy six example sentences by hand, then say them aloud from memory. After that, change the subject or verb. That small shift turns passive familiarity into active control.

FAQ: French gérondif (-ant)

Is the French gérondif the same as the English gerund?

No. English uses the gerund for noun-like functions, as in “Swimming is fun.” French usually uses the infinitive there: Nager, c’est amusant. (Swimming is fun.) The French gérondif usually means while doing or by doing.

What is the difference between the gérondif and the present participle?

The gérondif is en + -ant and usually modifies the main verb: en parlant (while speaking / by speaking). The present participle is the bare -ant form: parlant (speaking). The bare form is more limited and often more formal.

Can I always translate English “while doing” with the gérondif?

Often yes, but not always. Check that the subject is the same in both parts of the sentence and that the result sounds natural in French.

Can I say je suis en mangeant for “I am eating”?

No. Say je mange (I’m eating) or, if you need emphasis, je suis en train de manger (I am in the middle of eating).

What are the most important irregular gérondif forms?

Start with:

• en ayant (having / by having)
• en étant (being / by being)
• en sachant (knowing / by knowing)

Also learn common high-frequency forms like en faisant (doing / by doing), en disant (saying / by saying), and en allant (going / while going).

Pro Tip: Turn FAQ answers into production prompts. Don’t just reread en faisant — write one sentence with it, then one with en disant, then one with en allant.