#gerundio

SOLUTION:

Your option is valid! This is a different way to phrase it

It means "it's difficult to say who comes out on top" or "who's ahead/winning" - it's kind of an idiomatic expression by itself, but the use of ir + gerundio is commonplace

But ir ganando is like "who's benefitting" or "who's profiting" as well, the ganar as "to win" can be used a bit idiomatically too - also since ganar can be "to gain", you might see it like voy ganando experiencia "I keep gaining experience" or "I'm getting experience"

Overall this construction is used to show present day continuous "motion" either physical or figurative, as in it still is happening or still affects the present moment

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The actual grammar of it:

You're seeing the use of ir + the gerund/progressive form of the verb

The gerundio form is like the "-ing" form in English

The gerund form is often used with estar but can also be used with a verb of motion or continuation to imply a more "continuous" or implied motion

quién va a ganar "who's going to win" reads as more static, while quién va ganando feels like it's happening and continuing to happen

You say see something like voy corriendo "I go running", or anda diciendo estupideces "he/she goes around saying stupid things"

Another common one is seguir/continuar + gerund form as "to keep (doing something)" or "to continue (doing something)"

Some things you could see:

va a ganar = going to win va ganando = winning / "ahead" estar ganando = to be winning seguir ganando = to keep winning continuar ganando = to continue winning andar ganando = "to go around winning", "to win" / "to be a winner"

La poesía sale de mi boca a todo tranco de gerundio a todo flujo de agua potable a todo virus luminoso a toda capacidad de contagio[.]

¡Hola!

The “-ndo” part is called the gerund or the present participle, which is a crucial part in forming the present progressive tense. The present progressive refers to an ongoing action that is happening right now. This is different from the simple present tense in that the present tense refers more to fixed routines, something that won’t change now.

This website helps explain the difference between the present tense and the present progressive in English grammar (which may help if English is your native language in order to get some background on how we use it in English). And this other website goes into more detail about the Spanish present progressive and when to use it versus the English one (a super helpful website, I highly recommend it).

In your examples, “el hombre cocina” is in the present tense, merely stating the fact that the man cooks. On the other hand, “el hombre está cocinando” lets us know that right now the man is cooking.

The -ando and -iendo forms are verb forms that exist in all tenses as verb forms, not exactly conjugations. 

It would be like how you could use participles or the infinitives of the verb in any tense, like “I want to know” or “I wanted to know”… the “to know” exist in both.

The -ando/-iendo forms are “the gerund” or “progressive” forms, and they’re used for a sense of continuous motion. They can be used in any tense, but it will impact how you’re meant to read the sentence.

Está lloviendo. = It is raining.

Estaba lloviendo. = It was raining.

For present tense, “it is raining” is a continuous motion of “to rain” in the present. And estaba lloviendo is “it was raining” as continuous motion in the imperfect.

You can also see estuvo lloviendo “it was raining (at that time)” and it’s still fine.

Another example would be…

Siguen hablando. = They keep talking.

Siguieron hablando. = They kept talking.

The hablando doesn’t change, it’s the forms of seguir that changes.

The progressive forms can exist in any tense for the idea of continuous movement, but the verb tenses themselves are the ones that are going to put it into context.