Present participle, gérondif and verbal adjective
CEFR B2 · part 1
edumaterial's parts within the level. The European framework does not subdivide them.
The past before the past: le plus-que-parfaitForming the plus-que-parfait with the imperfect of the auxiliary, and using it for what…Compound relatives: lequel, auquel, ce dontChoosing the relative when a preposition comes first, contracting with à and de, and…Negation beyond ne… pasChoosing the second half of the negation, placing it correctly with infinitives and the…Depuis, pendant, il y a, dans, enChoosing among the five depending on whether you mean a starting point, a finished…Stressed pronouns and pronoun orderUsing moi, toi, lui, eux after prepositions, in comparisons and for emphasis; and…Accents and the cedillaPlacing é, è, ê and ç correctly, and knowing that in French an accent changes the sound…The rule, in three lines
Three forms end in -ant and they are not the same. The gérondif takes en and says how or when: en mangeant. The present participle replaces a relative clause: un homme portant un chapeau. The verbal adjective is an adjective and agrees: une histoire fatigante.
The usual slip. Leaving out the en of the gérondif, or using the -ant form where French wants an infinitive: «j'aime cuisinant» instead of «j'aime cuisiner».
Why it catches you out. English gives its -ing form every job at once: subject, object, continuous tense and adverbial. French splits those among the infinitive, the gérondif and a full clause, so one -ing sentence can need three different French answers.