No vengas ________, o no iremos al concierto. Don't arrive really late, or we won't get to the concert.

Kenneth C.C1Kwiziq community member

No vengas ________, o no iremos al concierto. Don't arrive really late, or we won't get to the concert.

Asked 6 years ago
InmaNative Spanish expert teacher in Kwiziq

Hi Kenneth 

What is your question exactly?

Kenneth C.C1Kwiziq community member

Hi Inma

My question is:  In the question above, why is the answer tardísima verus tardísimo.  I am trying to see what makes the answer femine instead of masculine.

K J.B1Kwiziq community member
I have this question as well. In the case of tú and usted commands, how do we know whether or not we should use the feminine or masculine form of the adverb? if we don't know the genders of the the subjects of the commands - how do we choose the appropriate ending?  The results seem to vary based on the test questions and the "Kwiz" questions, so I have not been able to find any context clues to answer this question.
Stuart M.C1Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor

*Since writing this two weeks ago, I've seen that this whole thread is a bit misleading - it's definitely worth someone from Kwiziq clearing this up just so that it doesn't confuse people who have yet to answer the test question this refers to*

Gracias,

Gromit L.C1Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor

I have the same question as K. The answer I’m getting seems to be the opposite of what Kenneth is saying, i.e. that tardísimo is correct and tardísima is wrong. But a discussion on why would be helpful please. 

Gromit L.C1Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor

I have the same question as K. The answer I’m getting seems to be the opposite of what Kenneth is saying, i.e. that tardísimo is correct and tardísima is wrong. But a discussion on why would be helpful please. 

InmaNative Spanish expert teacher in Kwiziq

Hola Kenneth, K, Stuart and Gromit,

first of all, apologies for not commenting earlier. It looks like there were some technical issues and we received no notifications of your comments on this thread.

The correct answer in the quiz for "extremely late" is "tardísimo"; which is what is set as correct answer in the system (not tardísima). It is using the masculine form because here the superlative formed with -ísimo is from the adverb "tarde". Adverbs are invariable, so there is no agreement with any noun. They modify the verb. 

Having said that, I am going include this explanation in the lesson to reflect how the superlative is formed with adverbs (the lesson is only focused on adjectives).

So, if we have a look at these two different sentences:

 María es rapidísima en la carretera.

María is very fast on the road.

The superlative agrees with the feminine subject because here rapidísima is an adjective in the superlative form.

María conduce rapidísimo. 

María drives very fast.

The superlative is invariable, ending in -o, because it modifies the verb, not the noun; here rapidísimo is a adverb of manner -how does she drive? very fast

I hope this clarified your doubts.

Un saludo a todos,

Inma

Elaine D.B1Kwiziq community member

So will this be corrected in your quiz?

No vengas ________, o no iremos al concierto. Don't arrive really late, or we won't get to the concert.

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