Two Verbs in a Sentence: The Case of English

When you are learning English, you will come across situations where two verbs occur in the same sentence. This can be confusing to the learner because it happens rarely in other languages such as Spanish or German, but it’s quite common in English. Read this article to find out more about when and how you can use two verbs in a sentence, and how to identify them correctly.

Verb Tense (Past Tense)

He will go to the movies with his sister. He has gone to the movies with his sister before. 

In past tense, two verbs can be used at the same time when you want to indicate that one action follows another and is completed by another. In this sentence, he will (action) + go (verb).

Verb Number (Singular)

In certain cases, two verbs can be combined to create an infinitive. For example, when you want to talk about where something needs to be put, put and there can be combined into put there. This type of sentence is called a verb-plus-verb construction.

The new couch should go there. 

Please don't put those things here. 

I'm going to put them over there for now. 

She's not the one who put it there. It has been put down for hours so I don't know what happened after that! 

The lost items had to be found before they could be turned in for rewards, but first they had to have been found by someone and reported back at headquarters.

Verb Person (First Person)

It was a tough to do, but I finally managed to make the deadline.

It is cold outside and my fingers are slowly turning numb. 

I had to go into work at 6 am this morning because our heating system broke down overnight. 

The bus never showed up so I had to walk two miles home instead. 

He felt bad that he couldn't have finished the project before time ran out.

Verb Mood (Indicative)

In many sentences, especially those describing action, it is common to see two verbs. These often represent either separate actions by one person or a sequence of events, which can be helpful for showing that someone acted on something or altered something and then did something else with it. In the sentence She took out the eggs and beat them, for example, the speaker does not just take out the eggs; she takes them out and then beats them.

The presence of two verbs can indicate an indirect object as well: They would tell her these things implies that they are telling her things indirectly. It could also be used to emphasize an object in this context if the speaker is emphasizing that they are telling her these particular things.