Successive conjugated verbs "trabajaba era'

William C1Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor

Successive conjugated verbs "trabajaba era'

This example has successive conjugated verbs. How common is this in Spanish?
Asked 6 years ago
SilviaKwiziq team member
Hola William! Could you please clarify a bit more your question? Muchas gracias! Silvia.
William C1Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor
How would you say "The company which I worked for was very efficient."? The four possible answers each have conjugated verbs “trabajaba era” next to each other. La empresa que trabajaba era muy eficiente. La empresa con la que trabajaba era muy eficiente. La empresa para la que trabajaba era muy eficiente. La empresa para la quien trabajaba era muy eficiente.
SilviaKwiziq team member
Hola de nuevo William! The correct answer here would be "La empresa para la que trabajaba era muy eficiente." As you can see, the Spanish order "preposition + el que/la que/los que/las que" works in a different way from English, as you have to put the preposition in the beginning of the clause whereas in English the preposition is placed at the end of it. As a result, we have many often two successive conjugated verbs, while in English, the preposition is usually placed in the middle of the two conjugated verbs. To sum up, having two conjugated verbs in this kind of structure is quite common in Spanish taking into account the order of the words in the sentence as explained before. Gracias por tu contribución! Silvia.
William C1Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor
Thank you. Much appreciated!

Successive conjugated verbs "trabajaba era'

This example has successive conjugated verbs. How common is this in Spanish?

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