He was standing outside the cinema wait/waiting for his friends.

[Zeroland500]

He was standing outside the cinema wait for his friends.
He was standing outside the cinema waiting for his friends.

which one is correct?

if "waiting" is a gerund , should i put a preposition "to" in front of it?

[Kitosdad]

He was standing outside the cinema waiting for his friends. Correct.

To add a" to" before waiting, would make a nonsense of your sentence in that form.

You could say, " He decided to wait outside of the cinema for his friends ."
" He decided to wait for his friends outside of the cinema. "
_________________
Keep it simple ... Keep it interesting.

[Daemon99]

Hi Kitosdad,

Would using 'outside the cinema' instead of 'ouside of the cinema' make it awfully wrong?
_________________
Non-native speaker of English
=================================
I intend to live forever - so far, so good.

[Kitosdad]

No, not at all.

That is how I usually say it.
_________________
Keep it simple ... Keep it interesting.