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When I was studying, I came across this issue that bugged me. In many sentences, a verb after a verb won't be conjugated(amos, ías, an, etc.) Here is an example:
"pretendía estar dormido"
Why isn't estar conjugated? Shouldn't it be conjugated to estuve/estaba? If you can, please explain when I should conjugate / NOT conjugate verbs. Thanks for your help and feedback.
In verb phrases formed by a main verb and an infinitive and/or a verb ending in -ando/-endo (present participle), only the main verb is tensed and conjugated.
The only case I can think of where a conjugated verb can be followed by another conjugated verb is that of both verbs referring to different grammatical persons, with the second verb belonging to a content (noun) clause having a tacit conjunction "que" (that). This structure is rather formal or literary and should always be avoided in everyday speech:
The only circumstance where this structure is more usual occurs when the content clause is embedded within a relative clause (in which case there is a relative "que" and the conjunction "que" continues to be omitted). This phenomenon also occurs in English:
