Subjunctive clauses with several verbs

Question

I've been looking through my grammar textbooks and checking examples online, but I'm still unsure about which of the following two examples is correct:

Penso che ci sia qualcosa che non va.

Penso che ci sia qualcosa che non vada.

More generally, if there are multiple verbs in a clause that requires the subjunctive, do all such verbs need to appear in the subjunctive or just the first?

Welcome to Italian.SE! Interesting question! – Charo Mar 01 '21 at 21:24 — Charo, Mar 01 '21 at 21:24
My ear refuses the second form. – egreg Mar 01 '21 at 22:09 — egreg, Mar 01 '21 at 22:09

score 5 · Accepted Answer · edited Mar 03 '21 at 13:02

In your example there isn't a dependent clause with multiple verbs, but a dependent clause having another dependent clause, the latter needing the indicative mood. We say: C'è qualcosa che non va, not *c'è qualcosa che non vada so, Penso che ci sia qualcosa che non va or pensavo ci fosse qualcosa che non andava.

More generally, if there are multiple verbs in a clause that require the subjunctive, do all such verbs need to appear in the subjunctive or just the first?

Indeed, it's simply not the case in your example. We would say: Penso che ci sia qualcosa, che sia brutto e che non vada.

Subjunctive clauses with several verbs

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