What’s the difference between “andar” and “estar” + gerundio in Spanish?

Spanish has two ways to say someone “is” doing something. Estar + gerundio describes an action happening right now, in one stretch. Andar + gerundio describes something that keeps happening, on and off, over a period — closer to “going around doing X.” A spider-silk-skin video closes with the warning no andes por ahí pensando que eres invencible, “don’t go around thinking you’re invincible” — not one flash of overconfidence, but a mindset the listener might keep drifting back into.

Andar literally means “to walk,” and that sense of wandering carries into the grammar: the construction implies repeated or intermittent behavior, with the subject actively keeping it up, rather than a single continuous moment the way estar + gerundio would frame it. You’ll hear the same pattern in anda diciendo tonterías (“he keeps going around saying nonsense”) or ando buscando trabajo (“I’ve been out looking for work,” on and off).