How do I combine verbs?

Question

Is it possible to shorten verbs which consist of more than one part when they are used together? For example, from the first sentence to the second below.

I had gone and had seen the city.

I had gone and seen the city.

Which of the two is corrrect?

Answer 1

Both forms are perfectly valid, and the choice is largely a matter of style.

The first version places slightly more emphasis on the "seeing", so it might be taken to imply the speaker gave more time and attention to sightseeing.

The second version slightly conflates the "going" and "seeing" into a single semantic unit. This might be taken to imply the purpose of going was for sightseeing, an implication which is far weaker in the first version.

Answer 2

Both sentences are valid, however most English speakers would probably instead say:

I had gone to see the city

I had gone lets the listener know that you are speaking in past tense, and now you can use the unconjugated form of see.

This is similar to Spanish:

Voy a ir la biblioteca.

Can be translated to

I am going (present tense) to go to the library (unconjugated)

Though this is not the case for all sentences, it works well for your example.