When to conjugate a verb?

[Alfonso]

Originally Posted by sosia

el espeso soy yo. Leí la nota de alfonso:

y al ser el último post de la página no miré si habia más posts/páginas.
Por eso respondí:
"el querer amar y no poder amar es el tema favorito de los poetas"
por el doble infinitivo

You've got it, Sosia, but notice that in your phrase, actually, both verbs are nouns. They are the subject of a sentence. The verb is es.


There could be two infinitives taking part on a verbal periphrasis when they depend on verbs like gustar, or on verbs of wish (we say in Spanish verbos de deseo), or on language verbs (decir, afirmar, negar...):

• Me gustaría poder volar.
• Deseo poder volar.
• Dijo poder volar (although it's much more common to say: dijo que podía volar).

I'm not sure what we were looking for, but, as the subject of the thread was if to conjugate the verb or not, I assumed only periphrasis were looked for. Of course, if there is not a personal subject, you can't conjugate a verb, so it's not a verb itself, but a noun (in the case of an infinitive) or an adjective (in the case of a participle). Anyway, Sosia, I'm only excusing myself... You've got it .

(Excuse the spelling, as I'm in a library, in Toledo (Spain), and I don't have my marvellous iespelling to check what I wrote).

[sosia]

You don't need to excuse. My example it's a little "forced" one, because, as you say, they "work" as nouns.
It's not usual to speak that way. But it suddlendly appeared when I read your phrase.
I'm not the grammar type, I always try to avoid grammar threads

[Rusty]

Originally Posted by Alfonso

...

There could be two infinitives taking part on a verbal periphrasis when they depend on verbs like gustar, or on verbs of volition (we say in Spanish verbos de deseo), or on language verbs (decir, afirmar, negar...): ...
I'm not sure what we were looking for, but, as the subject of the thread was whether to conjugate the verb or not, I assumed only periphrasis were looked for. ...

(Excuse the spelling, as I'm in a library, in Toledo (Spain), and I don't have my marvellous iespelling to check what I wrote).

Con la ortografía, no hay problemas. ¡Bien hecho!

(En EEUU, marvellous se deletrea marvelous.)

[Alfonso]

Thanks a lot for your corrections and information, Rusty. We also say in Spanish verbos volitivos / verbos de deseo.