Recently I wrote a sentence and came to realize I've chained two third person conjugated verbs like this:
The area of the screen where the expanded toolbar appears occludes a
significant part of the screen.
"appears" is taking about one thing (the expanded toolbar), while "occludes" is taking about an entirely different thing (the area where the toolbar appears).
The meaning of the whole sentence seems clear to me, but its the first time I see something like that. Or at least that I'm aware of it.
Is this the right way to write that sentence?
Even when I can't come with a sentence off the top of my head that has three of those verbs chained together, is that acceptable for more that two verbs?
Best Answer
where the expanded toolbar appears is a relative clause. You could snip it out to make a valid sentence, though one that omits an important piece of information.
The sentence now looks odd, because the clause contains important information that defines which particular part of the screen you are talking about: that means that it's a defining relative clause.
You don't use commas to separate a defining relative clause from the rest of the sentence- you just slot it straight in- so your sentence as it stands is correct and, in my opinion, completely understandable.