Welcome to the first instalment of a new series - Interesting Words - in which we go one-by-one through a number of Spanish words which are used every day but are quite fucked up to our English brains, either because they translate weirdly or have a million different uses for the same word.
We're going to start off the series with a deep dive on how to use seguir, which has three really handy uses, and finish off with a couple of bonus tips!
Seguir has three main translations:
1. To Keep + INGI keep trying to learn Spanish -> sigo tratando de aprender español2. To Be StillMy son is still in London -> mi hijo sigue en Londres3. To FollowWe should follow this guy -> deberíamos seguir a este tipo
We'll look at each usage in detail in a moment, but let's firstly look at the conjugation of Seguir so we can see how these sentences were made.
Yo
sigo Tú sigues
Él/ella/usted sigue
Nosotros seguimos
Ellos/ellas/ustedes siguen
Okay, now we know the conjugation, let's dive in to how to use it in real life.
Seguir very commonly translates to
Keep + ING, in the meaning of 'to continue doing something'.
Let's look at a few examples and how they were made.
Tenemos que (we have to) is a modal verb so is followed by the infinitive,
seguir (to keep), which is then followed by the present participle,
trabajando (working).
So you can see that both languages follow "keep" with the present participle - which in English is the -ING form, and in Spanish is the -ando/-iendo form.
In this example we want to say "he keeps" so we use the he/she form of seguir, which we can see from the conjugation above is sigue - and then we just follow with the present participle (the ING form), which for tomar (to take) is tomando. In Spanish we "take decisions" which is why we use tomar.
Here we want to say "I keep" so we use
sigo, and then simply follow with the present participle of
pensar (to think), which is
pensando.
Remember in Spanish we say pensar en (to think about).
In this last example we want to say "we keep" so we use the
we form of
seguir, which is
seguimos, and follow by the present participle of
tratar (to try) which is
tratando.
Remember to say "try to do something" in Spanish we say trater + de + infinitive.
Bear in mind that in English we have a few ways to say "keep doing something". For example we could say, "We can't [continue/carry on/keep going on/go on] like this." For all of these we would use seguir in Spanish.
One important note is the difference between
seguir (keep doing) and
continuar (to continue) in Spanish.
We use continuar when we want to say the verb "to continue" by itself - so not followed by another verb. Whereas we use seguir when it's more in the meaning of keep + ING.
For example:
Podemos detenernos ahora y continuar después del almuerzo (we can stop now and continue after lunch)
No podemos seguir haciendo esto (we can't keep doing this)
So just remember to use continuar when you're using the verb "to continue" by itself, and not in the meaning of "continue doing" something.
To use in the past, simply use the past conjugation of
seguir (either preterite or imperfect depending on context) and again follow with the present participle.
Here is the past preterite form of
seguir:
Yo seguí
Tú seguiste
Él/ella/usted siguió
Nosotros seguimos
Ellos/ellas/ustedes siguieron
And here's a couple of examples!
Seguí hablando con él (I kept talking to him)
¿Por qué seguiste trabajando allí? (why did you keep working there?)
Usage in the future is the same; just use the future form of
seguir. Here is the future conjugation and some examples:
Yo seguiré
Tú seguirás
Él/ella/usted seguirá
Nosotros seguiremos
Ellos/ellas/ustedes seguirán
Seguiré hablando con él (I will keep talking to him)
Nos seguirán molestando (they will keep annoying us)
¿Seguirás trabajando ahí? (will you keep working there?)
The second usage of
seguir is
to be still. This can feel a bit weird because the whole meaning of "I am still/he is still etc" is contained within the one word
sigo/sigues etc.
Let's look at a few examples to see what we're dealing with here.
You can see that the whole meaning of "I am still" is contained in the one word,
sigo.
This can feel quite strange at first, because it almost feels not enough, like we should add something else, but nope that's it!
As you can see, this also works in questions. The whole meaning of "are you still" is contained in the one word, sigues. Because Spanish doesn't have a question structure, we just say the positive sentence "you are still at home" and then add the question marks to turn it into a question.
We can put verbs there in the gerund (-ING) form to say things like this.
This example is the weirdest because we say “I’m still being in Spain”, which is crazy - that’s just the way it is. You however could shorten it and just say
sigo en España.
Hopefully you feel like you’re starting to get the hang of it! Let's finish off with learning the last meaning of seguir, and a couple of bonus pro tips.
The last meaning of
seguir is
to follow.
This translates very nicely, as Spanish uses seguir in all the same ways we use to follow in English. Let's look at a few examples.
In this example, we are using the present continuous tense, which is
estar + present participle.
The present participle of seguir is siguiendo, hence the sentence me está siguiendo.
As I mentioned before, Spanish uses seguir in all the same ways we use to follow in English. So we can use it for talking about following people on social media. How awesome is that?!
We can also use seguir in the meaning of whether you follow what someone is saying or not. Nice right?!
Lastly, we can also use seguir in the meaning of "to follow the rules". So as you can see, seguir really is the gift that keeps on giving!
Now, there's one time that
seguir is used that just boggles the mind when you see it in subtitles, and that is the phrase
sigue siendo - which directly translates to
he is still being.
This is used in sentences to say: [someone] is still a [something] - often in funny cases like "I know she's annoying sometimes, but she's still my wife so quit it with the jokes!"; but also in just normal cases like, "I'm still a policeman".
In Spanish they say sigue siendo mi esposa (she’s still being my wife) or sigo siendo policía (I’m still being a policeman) which of course sounds very weird, but that's just the way it is and it's a common structure in Spanish so we just have to learn it!
Let's look at a couple of examples.
I just thought this example was quite funny. My hometown is an "it" so we use the he/she/it form, which is sigue, followed by siendo (being).
This is example is quite a clear case of when and why we would use this phrase. Hopefully I've convinced you that this phrase is actually worth learning!
Just one final note on
seguir.
Sometimes, when the verb is to be, we can use either seguir or todavía + estar to express what we want to say - and both are fine.
Here's an example of what I mean:
In this case, both sentences meaning "are you angry", as
todavía estás means literally "are you still" and
sigues also means "are you still".
In this case, the todavía version just maybe emphasises the word "still" a bit more (are you still angry), but both are essentially fine.
So guys, that was our first Interesting Word - I hope you found it useful and learned a couple of things about
seguir you didn't know already!
As always, you can download our
grammar leaflet here for a clear and concise summary of all essential Spanish grammar, which I find helpful to have as a quick reference guide when trying to speak.
See you in the next one!
