To express to keep on/continue doing something in Spanish we use one of these two verbal structures:
Seguir
For example:
Sigue caminando un poco más y verás una farmacia.
Keep on walking a bit longer and you will see a chemist.
Luís siguió insistiendo para convencer a la chica.
Luís kept insisting to convince the girl.
Continuar
For example:
Continúa caminando un poco más y verás una farmacia.
Keep on walking a bit longer and you will see a chemist.
Luís continuó insistiendo para convencer a la chica.
Luís kept insisting to convince the girl.
Notice how both seguir and continuar are followed by a gerund, which coincides with the English structure.
However special attention must be paid to the verb seguir which is a stem-changing verb (e>i) as well as a consonant change verb (gu>g). See:
- Conjugate stem-changing (e > i) verbs: seguir, conseguir, perseguir in El Presente (present tense)
- Verbos con cambio ortográfico gu > g (El Presente)
Also remember the absence of a preposition between seguir/continuar and the gerund form, as this is a common mistake.
Here are some other examples:
Mi padre sigue fumando a pesar de las advertencias del médico.
My dad keeps on smoking despite the doctor's warnings.
Ellos siguieron bebiendo hasta el amanecer.
They kept on drinking until dawn.
Los voluntarios han continuado recaudando dinero para los niños pobres.
The volunteers have continued collecting money for poor children.
El bailarín continuó bailando después de su descalificación.
The dancer continued dancing after his disqualification.
Take one of the examples above:
It is incorrect to use a preposition between the two verb forms or to use the infinitive:
Ellos siguieron a bebiendo hasta el amanecer.
Ellos siguieron a beber hasta el amanecer.
Ellos continuaron a bebiendo hasta el amanecer.
Ellos continuaron a beber hasta el amanecer.
Learn more about these related Spanish grammar topics
Examples and resources
Los voluntarios han continuado recaudando dinero para los niños pobres.
The volunteers have continued collecting money for poor children.
Ellos siguieron bebiendo hasta el amanecer.
They kept on drinking until dawn.
Luís siguió insistiendo para convencer a la chica.
Luís kept insisting to convince the girl.
Mi padre sigue fumando a pesar de las advertencias del médico.
My dad keeps on smoking despite the doctor's warnings.
Luís continuó insistiendo para convencer a la chica.
Luís kept insisting to convince the girl.
Continúa caminando un poco más y verás una farmacia.
Keep on walking a bit longer and you will see a chemist.
El bailarín continuó bailando después de su descalificación.
The dancer continued dancing after his disqualification.
Sigue caminando un poco más y verás una farmacia.
Keep on walking a bit longer and you will see a chemist.
Nicole
Kwiziq community member
9 June 2019
1 reply
Making sentences and word order and syntax
Hi. Studying this lesson reminded me that I searched on your site lessons that would help with sentence building, and how that is done in Spanish (above the usual introduction to making sentence.) I could not find any despite several difference search words. I also looked through the grammar, but saw no heading for that subject.
So could you point me in the right direction:
1- How to make sentences and their correct /various word order, and how interchangeable /or not the word order is, on a more advanced level than : subject, verb, object.
2- And also how the same meaning can be conveyed in different ways.
Thank you. Nicole
Nicole
Kwiziq community member
15 June 2019
15/06/19
Hi,
I was wondering if my question was seen?
Nicole