Does the second verb go into the infinitive?
We dance an sing everyday. How do you translate this into Spanish? I know the rule is the second verb goes into infinant form but does that apply here?
5 Answers
Lazarus said:
There is no such rule. The "second verb", as you call it, can be infinitive, "gerundio" or past participle, depending on the construction, but only if it is embedded into the sentence.
As Lazarus has already mentioned, in a single verb phrase only one of the verbs is conjugated, and any other verbs that are part of the same verb phrase must appear in an impersonal form. I just thought I would add some examples to illustrate this point. The following sentences have been excerpted from various news and literary sources and are meant to demonstrate the difference between a compound phrase and a compound sentence:
1). Ha venido y pasado el día y podemos volver a la rutina normal ? The day has come and gone, and now we can go on with our daily lives/and now we can get back to our normal routines.
2). El hijo de Dios ha venido y nos ha dado entendimiento para que conozcamos al verdadero [Dios]. ? The son of God has come and he has given us understanding so that we might know the one true [God].
In each of the sentences above, in both English and Spanish, the verbs have been conjugated in the present perfect indicative. The so-called main verbs, the ones which describe the actions being carried out, have all been highlighted in blue. Because the auxiliary verb, in this case "haber," carries the inflectional information of the verb phrase (that is, it has been conjugated to convey information regarding tense, person, number, mood and aspect) the main verb must take one of the so-called "impersonal forms" described by Lazarus above. However, as illustrated by the sentences above, the conjunction "and" can be used to form either a compound sentence—as in 2) above—or a compound verb phrase—as in 1) above.
Notice that the main difference between whether we form a compound verb phrase or a compound sentence has to do with whether or not the subject of the sentence is repeated. This might best be understood by examining the following set of sentences:
Past participles
3). Compound Verb Phrase vs. Compound Sentence
a). El día ha venido y pasado ? The day has come and gone.
b). El día ha venido y ha pasado ? The day has come and it has passed
The same sort of comparison might be made with the Spanish gerundio below. Notice that the verb estar plays a similar syntactic role to that of "haber" in the examples above:
Gerundio
4) Compound Verb Phrase vs. Compound Sentence
a). Siempre estaba corriendo y saltando ? He was always running and jumping
b). Siempre estaba corriendo y siempre estaba saltando ? He was always running and he was always jumping
The third type of impersonal form to look at would be the infinitive. In the examples below, the verb querer now carries with it all of the inflectional information for the entire verb phrase:
Infinitive
5) Compound Verb Phrase vs, Compound Sentence
a). Quiero vivir y ser libre ? I want to live and be free.
b). Quiero vivir y quiero ser libre ? I want to live and I want to be free.
Hopefully, studying the examples above might give you some insight into the difference between these types of constructions.
I know the rule is the second verb goes into infinant form but does that apply here?
There is no such rule. The "second verb", as you call it, can be infinitive, "gerundio" or past participle, depending on the construction, but only if it is embedded into the sentence. In "We dance and sing" there are two independent sentences joined by "and", which could have also be expressed as "We dance. We sing". Nothing is embedded, so each sentence has only one verb.
fuego, I believe you are asking "Does the second verb go into the infinitive?".
The infinitive is the form of the verb in the simplest state (i.e. "to dance", "to sing").
Also, your sentence should read
We dance and sing every day.
"and" is a coordinating conjunction that connects words of equal value. I may be wrong, but I believe the rule of the "second verb is in the infinitive" does not apply here.
Everyday vs Every day
Everyday and every day are commonly confused in English. There's no difference in pronunciation, but using the wrong one when writing is a mistake in the everyday English you use every day.
Everyday
Everyday is an adjective that means commonplace, ordinary, or normal.
These shoes are great for everyday wear
You shouldn't wear an everyday outfit to the wedding
Don't use the everyday dishes - it's a special occasion
Every day
Every day means "each day."
I go to the park every day
I have to work every day this week except Friday
Every day I feel a little better
The Bottom Line
Everyday is a single word and is an adjective, so it's the one that is used in front of a noun to describe something as normal or commonplace. Every day is an adjective (every) plus a noun (day), and it means each day.
Bailamos y cantamos todos los días.
In English, you could say:
We dance and we sing every day.
And an easy way to remember that "every day" is two words here: you wouldn't say "everyweek" or "everyyear" in this type of sentence. 
