The only thing that’s clear is you were hired to stand up here and tell us lies,” one person shouted.
My question is how do we use more then one finite verb in a single clause in one? That is, were these all verbs are used in one clause.
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2 Answers
We don't. It's not all just one clause. This is a complex sentence, and we have clauses inside other clauses.
“The only thing that’s 1 clear is 2 [that] you were 3 hired to stand up here and tell us lies,” one person shouted 4.”
The contracted "is" belongs to the clause "that's clear". This is a subordinate clause and a relative clause, and it modifies the noun phrase "the only thing".
The uncontracted "is" belongs to a matrix clause. That means that it is a clause which contains at least one other clause. In this sentence, this matrix clause contains two clauses. It contains "that's clear" as a part of its subject, and it contains "[that] you were hired to stand up here and tell us lies" as its subject complement.
Content clauses can be introduced by the word "that". In many cases, this is an optional word. In the original sentence, this optional word isn't used. I've included it in brackets to show [that] the option exists.
The "were" belongs to a content clause. This is a clause that can do the same kind of job as a simple noun. The entire clause "[that] you were hired to stand up here and tell us lies" is the predicate nominative subject complement of the uncontracted verb "is".
Finally, the verb "shouted" belongs to the outermost matrix clause. It's subject is "one person", and its direct object is the entire literal quote.
We have one matrix clause 4 which contains another matrix clause 2 which in turn contains two subordinate clauses 1, 3.
I count six verbs there. 1) "that's" (= that is), 2) "is", 3) "were hired", 4) "to stand", 5) "tell", 6) "shouted". The sentence is grammatical except that there should be an opening quotation mark to pair with the one after "lies". The many verbs are due to the complex structure.
answered Mar 8, 2020 at 8:56