adding more conjugated verbs to a sentence

Question

I have been taught by my teacher not toconjugate another verb in a sentence unless there is a conjunction in between them. So how would I say something like: "They found rocks that are round" how would I use "are" because it sounds to me like the "to be" verb"

Answer 1

Well it totally depends on the context of course. but before that, you can have more than one verb that are conjugated differently because in a sentence you have an Independant clause (this is the main clause) and dependant clauses.

In your example, the indendant clause is "they found rocks" and the dependant clause is "that are round"

Most of the time you find "that","when","who", "whose", "which", "what", everything that follows it is an dependant clause which may or may not have the same time tense.

When I started I referred to context, because you can say also: "They found rocks that were round" but in this case, the shape (round) changed in the past to some other.
In your example, the rocks were round and are still round.

Would you conjugate the verb in the dependant clause? - kyle_hurley, Dec 18, 2012

Answer 2

I think an important point is that you teacher slightly oversimplified. When teaching, one is initially only teaching very simple sentences, so the "one conjugated verb per sentence" rule works, for a while.

So, in a simple sentence, the teacher is right, but in a complex sentence (a main clause, with one or more subordinate clauses) it can be more than one.

You can also have a complex sentence that has multiple subjects, but not a subordinate clause.

Such as -- She will run and he will follow.

A better rule would be to say .that "There is only conjugated verb per subject, per clause"

A second clause or a second subject can introduce a 2nd conjugated verb (or a 3rd)

Ella va a correr y él va a seguir, si puedan.

(and acutally, I don´t know if that last poder should be subjunctive or conditional, but you get the idea)

But. Rgspax, for learners, two simple sentences work better than long one, which goes wrong? - annierats, Dec 13, 2012

.. si puede. - annierats, Dec 13, 2012

I agree. I wasn´t advocating those long ones by the way. Just acknowledging they exist. ;) - rogspax, Dec 14, 2012

You're right, some Spanish ones are endless! - annierats, Dec 14, 2012

Answer 3

I'll make a hesiant offering:

Se han encontrado algunas rocas/ piedras redondas.

Se hallaron con algunas rocas redondas.

Se han descubrido algunas piedras totalment esféricas.

As you can see I've avoided the problem!

I'm just another learner. More people will help you. There are actually very many ways to say this.

Answer 4

This was asked a couple years ago. Use this link.

http://www.spanishdict.com/answers/125483/multiple-verbs-in-a-sentence-how-to-conjugate-them-all