Verb Conjugation.

Question

So the sentence is:"Los turistas caminan, compran y descansan". The homework asked for all three to be conjugated into the preterit form. I thought you would only conjugate " caminan", and the other two would stay in their infinitive form "comprar y descansar"? Can someone explain why it is different in this situation? Thanks!

Answer 1

I hope this makes sense and is correct. When you are forming compound verbs, ie ideas, actions, etc that need more than one verb to complete the thought then only the first is conjugated. When you have a series of separate actions expressed by different verbs such as your example they are all conjugated.

Thank you, it makes perfect sense. That is what I wanted to know. I appreciate you clarifying it for me! - chelly228, Dec 4, 2013

Answer 2

If all three actions happened at a given point in the past they will all 3 be conjugated in the past tense. The infinitive is like saying "to + action" your examples are to walk, to shop, to rest.

Thank you deedeegill. I appreciate it, - chelly228, Dec 4, 2013

Answer 3

Homework? Are you trying to get us to do your homework? That may not be advisable. Try looking it up on Google.

No, I already did the homework, thank you very much. IF you read the question, you will see that I stated it asked for all 3 to be conjugated, which means I did that. - chelly228, Dec 4, 2013