When connecting two progressive actions, are you supposed to connect them
using progressive in both or only the last one, as tense should be determined
by the last verb?

Example: He was sitting in the classroom, reading a book.

彼は教室にすわって本を読んでいた。

or

彼は教室にすわっていて本を読んでいた。

Thanks in advance
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2020-09-09T20:15:39.483
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2020-09-10T18:23:15.467
2020-09-09T21:45:37.260
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question
grammar verbs
Using progressive when connecting verbs
Both of these would not express progressive actions. When you connect verbs
with て-form, it would mean you finished the first action, then did the second
action. 座っていて would be ungrammatical because you imply a progressive action is
already done. Instead, for progressive actions, you would add ながら to the end
of the ます-stem of a verb.

彼は歩きながら携帯をいじっていました。  
He was messing with his phone while walking.

For your example, however, this gets a bit more complicated. Sitting in
Japanese is an instantaneous action, not a state. While you can say you were
"sitting while talking" in English, 座る means the action of sitting down and is
instantaneous. You cannot "read a book while performing the action of sitting
down". Instead, you would "sit down, and then read a book".

So, instead of:  
彼は座りながら本を読んでいた。X This is incorrect

you would say:  
彼は座って本を読んでいた。  
He sat down and read a book.
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2020-09-10T18:08:40.213
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2020-09-10T18:23:15.467
2020-09-10T18:23:15.467
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answer