Learn Hardcore Spanish (Latin America): El ritmo de esa canción es rápido.

Leaving out el (Ritmo de esa canción es rápido) sounds incomplete or wrong in standard Spanish. English is more flexible and sometimes allows you to drop the in some contexts, but Spanish generally does not here.

Why is it de esa canción? Why do we need de there?

Spanish uses de to show possession or association, where English often uses of or the possessive ’s.

El ritmo de esa canción = the rhythm of that song
English could also say that song’s rhythm, but Spanish does not use an equivalent of ’s.

You cannot say El ritmo esa canción; it’s ungrammatical. You must have de:

✅ El ritmo de esa canción
❌ El ritmo esa canción

Why esa canción and not esta canción or aquella canción?

Esta, esa, aquella all mean this/that, but they express different kinds of distance:

esta canción – this song (physically or mentally close to the speaker)
esa canción – that song (a bit farther away, or not “here” with the speaker; often neutral “that”)
aquella canción – that song over there (farther away in space or sometimes in time; more distant, more “over there” feeling)

In Latin American usage, esa is the most common neutral “that”.
So esa canción is just that song (not right here with me), and the choice depends on context. In a real conversation, you could often also say esa where English just says the:

Me gusta el ritmo de esa canción.
(I like the rhythm of the song / that song.)

Why is it rápido and not rápida? What is rápido agreeing with?

Adjectives in Spanish must agree in gender and number with the subject of the sentence.

The subject here is el ritmo:

el → masculine, singular
ritmo → masculine noun

So the adjective must also be masculine singular: rápido.

El ritmo de esa canción es rápido.
(The rhythm … is fast.)

It is not agreeing with canción, which is feminine. In this sentence, canción is inside a prepositional phrase (de esa canción) and is not the subject.

If we changed the subject, the adjective would change:

Esa canción es rápida.
(That song is fast.) – now it agrees with canción (feminine) → rápida.

Could I say El ritmo de esa canción está rápido instead of es rápido? What’s the difference?

Both ser and estar can appear with adjectives, but they have different typical meanings:

ser + adjective → a more inherent, characteristic quality
estar + adjective → a current state, condition, or something temporary/unusual

In this sentence:

El ritmo de esa canción es rápido.
This describes the song’s rhythm as a normal, defining characteristic. This is the natural, default choice.

Está rápido could be used in some contexts, but it would sound like:

The rhythm is (unusually) fast today / in this version / in this performance.
You’re evaluating it in this moment as being fast, maybe compared to other times.

In everyday speech about a song’s general rhythm, es rápido is what you want.

If I want to say “very fast,” where do I put muy?

You place muy directly before the adjective:

El ritmo de esa canción es muy rápido.
(The rhythm of that song is very fast.)

Word order is:

[subject] + [de-phrase] + es + muy + [adjective]
→ El ritmo de esa canción es muy rápido.

Can I say Esa canción es rápida instead? Does it mean the same thing?

Yes, you can say:

Esa canción es rápida.
(That song is fast.)

Meaning-wise, it’s very close, but the focus is slightly different:

El ritmo de esa canción es rápido.
Focuses specifically on the rhythm of the song.
Esa canción es rápida.
Describes the song as a whole as fast (tempo, feel, etc.).

Both are natural. In music talk, both are common, but if you want to emphasize the tempo or beat specifically, el ritmo is more precise.

Why is rápido at the end of the sentence instead of before ritmo, like rápido ritmo?

In this sentence, rápido is not directly modifying ritmo as part of a noun phrase. It’s a predicate adjective linked to the subject by the verb es:

El ritmo … es rápido.
(The rhythm … is fast.)

Structure: [subject] + es + [adjective] — same as English The rhythm is fast.

If you want rápido before the noun, you need a different structure:

El ritmo rápido de esa canción…
(The fast rhythm of that song…)

Here, rápido is directly modifying ritmo inside the noun phrase, not after es.
So:

El ritmo de esa canción es rápido. → verb es
- adjective at the end.
El rápido ritmo de esa canción… or El ritmo rápido de esa canción… → adjective inside the noun phrase.

What’s the difference between rápido and rápidamente? Why can’t I say es rápidamente?

rápido (here) is an adjective: it describes a thing (a noun).
rápidamente is an adverb: it describes how an action is done (a verb).

In El ritmo de esa canción es rápido, we’re describing a noun (the rhythm), so we need an adjective:

✅ es rápido (the rhythm is fast)

Rápidamente modifies verbs:

El cantante habla rápidamente.
(The singer speaks quickly.)

So:

❌ El ritmo de esa canción es rápidamente. – wrong, because rápidamente can’t describe a noun via ser.
✅ El ritmo de esa canción es rápido.

Why is canción feminine? Is there a rule?

Yes. Many nouns ending in -ción are feminine:

la canción (song)
la nación (nation)
la invitación (invitation)
la información (information)

So:

la canción → feminine
esa canción → feminine demonstrative (esa, not ese)
If you use an adjective with it: canción rápida, canción lenta, etc.

This is why in esa canción, the demonstrative is esa (feminine), not ese (masculine).

Why does canción and rápido have accent marks? How do they affect pronunciation?

Accent marks in Spanish show where the stress goes (which syllable is emphasized).

canción
- Syllables: can–ción
- The accent mark on ó tells you to stress that syllable: can–CIÓN.
- Without the mark (cancion), the default rule would wrongly stress CAN-cion.
rápido
- Syllables: rá–pi–do
- The accent mark on á tells you to stress the first syllable: RÁ–pi–do.
- Without the mark (rapido), the default rule would stress RA–PI-do, which is incorrect.

So the written accents don’t change the vowel sound itself; they show which syllable gets the stress.

How would I say this sentence in the plural (for example, talking about several songs)?

You need to pluralize all the relevant parts:

el ritmo → los ritmos
esa canción → esas canciones
rápido → rápidos (to agree with los ritmos)

Plural version:

Los ritmos de esas canciones son rápidos.
(The rhythms of those songs are fast.)

Or, if you think of one collective rhythm per song but are just speaking loosely, another natural option is:

El ritmo de esas canciones es rápido.
(The rhythm of those songs is fast.)

In that second version, ritmo stays singular (as one general characteristic of the group), so es rápido also stays singular. Both patterns appear in real usage; it depends on whether you conceptualize the rhythms individually or as a shared property.