The objective of the present study is to submit the classical difference between the two forms in -ant in contemporary French (the gerund and the present participle) to the detailed analysis deliberately restricted to a single semantic class of verbs. : the verbs of perception. This restriction makes it possible to better identify the differences as well as the syntactic and semantic similarities between the two forms, on the one hand, and to see from a new angle the functioning of the verbs of perception, on the other hand.