I have noticed that sometimes “speaking” is given as Hablando, and other times as Hablar. What is the reason for the differences, please?
E.G.
I’m not sure about speaking with someone else / No estoy segure de hablar con otra persona
But
Practice speaking / Practicar hablando
Thanks
Tony
A general rule of thumb is that in Spanish the -ar form is used a lot more than the -ando. Sometimes where we say -ing in English, it will be -ando (for -ar verbs) in Spanish but not always. Often it will be the -ar form.
To me, ‘practicar hablando’ sounds more like ‘to practice by speaking’, e.g. “I’m going to practise this poem by speaking it out loud every day”, rather than to practise the art of speaking, whereas I would say ‘practicar a hablar’ for ‘to practise the skill of speaking’, but as always, there are a lot of variations. You’ll be understood but listen to what native speakers say.
Thanks Deborah, I do associate -ando with -ing so I thought it might but that sort of thing.
It does tend to work the other way round though - where you get ~ando in Spanish, it will usually be ~ing in English.
so it’s worth using -ando for an -ing word if I am not sure. I have noticed that, if I do get a Spanish word slightly wrong, the person I am speaking to usually corrects me with a smile thrown in.
Absolutely! It’s better than hesitating, or saying nothing. Just throw it in there and as you’ve noticed, people will generally appreciate your efforts and help you out. It’s a good way to learn!
I’m only replying so I can use a grammary word that I learned in a class a couple of months ago … Gerund. So any -ing word in english is the gerund form and translates to:
-ar verbs: drop -ar and add -ando (hablar to hablando)
-er verbs: drop -er and add -iendo (beber to bebiendo)
-ir verbs: drop -ir and add -iendo (vivir to viviendo)
But when the stem ends in a vowel add -yendo (leer to leyendo)
This doesn’t change anything, I still hate grammar. 
Well, strictly speaking a gerund is an -ing word in English when it’s used as a noun, e.g. “Running is not something I enjoy”, but not if it’s used as a verb - “She was running in the park”
Sorry, but I still remember the teacher at school that taught us about gerunds and how delighted I was to learn about them. Yes, a grammar nerd from way back! 
And, just like that, I don’t understand anything again. Normal service has resumed. 
I have absolutely no doubt that I was the only child in that class who found gerunds fascinating, and 99% of English speakers live their lives blissfully unaware that they’re using them
I feel your grammary pain
Well, actually…
Old English had a present participle rinnende (running) and a gerund rinnung or rinning (running). Written Old English didn’t really do continuous verb tenses, although there are occasional examples, but by the time we get to Middle English we’ve got a couple of options:
Because these two options sounded so similar, they kind of fell together in “she was running”, and these days we would say that a-running sounds wilfully quaint, and runnin’ is “dropping your g’s”. Strictly speaking, though, runnin’ is a participle, and running is a gerund.
(The similarity between on rinnunge, yn rhedeg and ag ruith is an areal feature of the languages of these islands: it isn’t clear who got there first, but it’s possible that it’s a bit of syntax that English borrowed from Welsh.)
Aha! Now I know where that a-verb-ing comes from in older songs and nursery rhymes. Very interesting!
A-hunting we will go
A-hunting we will go
We’ll catch a fox and put him in a box
And then we’ll let him go
Sorry - a total diversion from Spanish. I’ll get back in my box now!