Learn Hardcore Spanish (Spain): Barrer la cocina con esa escoba es rapidísimo. - Sweeping the kitchen with that broom is super fast.

Why is barrer (the infinitive) used at the start of the sentence? In English I’d say “Sweeping the kitchen…” with a gerund, not “To sweep the kitchen…”.

In Spanish, the infinitive (barrer) can be used as a noun, similar to the -ing form in English.

Barrer la cocina con esa escoba es rapidísimo.
≈ Sweeping the kitchen with that broom is super fast.

Here barrer works as the subject of the verb es, like “Sweeping the kitchen” is the subject of “is” in English.

You’ll often see this pattern:

Fumar es malo para la salud. – Smoking is bad for your health.
Conducir de noche es peligroso. – Driving at night is dangerous.

So the structure is completely natural in Spanish:
[Infinitive + complements] + es + adjective.

Why is it la cocina and not just cocina? In English I would say “sweeping the kitchen,” but “kitchen” doesn’t take “the”.

Spanish tends to use the definite article (el, la, los, las) more often than English, especially with places in the house and many common nouns.

Barrer la cocina literally = “to sweep the kitchen”
But structurally it’s closer to “to sweep the the kitchen”, which we don’t say in English.

Other similar examples:

Voy a limpiar el baño. – I’m going to clean the bathroom.
Cierra la puerta. – Close the door.

English often omits “the” where Spanish keeps el / la, so la cocina is normal and required here.

Why is it barrer la cocina and not barrer en la cocina?

With verbs like barrer (to sweep), you normally mark the object directly, without a preposition:

Barrer la cocina / el suelo / la terraza – to sweep the kitchen / the floor / the terrace

Using en would change the meaning:

Barrer en la cocina = to sweep *in the kitchen
(The focus is *where you’re sweeping, not what you’re sweeping.)

But even then, native speakers would still usually say barrer la cocina, because the thing you sweep (the floor of the kitchen) is seen as the direct object, not just the location. So barrer la cocina is the standard, natural form.

What does esa in esa escoba mean exactly? How is it different from esta or aquella?

Esa is a demonstrative adjective meaning “that” (feminine singular), and it indicates medium distance—physical, mental, or conversational.

Rough guide (in Spain and generally):

esta escoba – this broom (close to the speaker)
esa escoba – that broom (a bit farther away, usually closer to the listener or not right next to the speaker)
aquella escoba – that broom over there (far from both speaker and listener, or somewhat distant in context/time)

In practice, people often only use esta / esa in everyday speech, and aquella feels a bit more emphatic or literary unless the distance is clearly large.

Why is it esa escoba and not just esa?

You could say just esa if the noun escoba is obvious from the context:

¿Qué escoba quieres? – Which broom do you want?
– Esa es la mejor. – That one is the best.

But in your sentence, esa escoba appears the first time the broom is mentioned, so the noun is typically explicit:

Barrer la cocina con esa escoba es rapidísimo.
Sweeping the kitchen with that broom is super fast.

Once it’s clear you’re talking about a broom, later sentences could omit the noun and just say esa.

What exactly does rapidísimo mean, and how is it different from rápido or muy rápido?

Rapidísimo is the absolute superlative of rápido. It expresses very or extremely fast, with an emphatic tone.

rápido – fast
muy rápido – very fast
rapidísimo – extremely fast / super fast / incredibly fast

In practice, rapidísimo is often stronger or more expressive than muy rápido and feels a bit more enthusiastic or emphatic:

Es rápido. – It’s fast.
Es muy rápido. – It’s very fast.
Es rapidísimo. – It’s super fast / insanely fast.

So in the sentence, it adds a bit of wow: sweeping is not just fast, it’s really fast with that broom.

How is the form rapidísimo built? Can I do this with other adjectives too?

Yes. Rapidísimo is formed by adding -ísimo to the adjective rápido:

Take the masculine singular form: rápido
Drop the final -o: rápid-
Add -ísimo: rapidísimo

This -ísimo / -ísima / -ísimos / -ísimas ending works with many adjectives:

caro → carísimo – very/terribly expensive
guapo → guapísimo – very handsome
difícil → dificilísimo – extremely difficult
interesante → interesantísimo – very interesting

It must agree in gender and number with the noun it describes:

un coche carísimo – a very expensive car
unas casas carísimas – some very expensive houses
unas chicas guapísimas – some very beautiful girls

What does rapidísimo agree with here? There’s no obvious masculine noun like trabajo or tiempo in the sentence.

Grammatically, rapidísimo is masculine singular because it refers to the whole action barrer la cocina con esa escoba, which is interpreted as something like:

El hecho de barrer la cocina con esa escoba es rapidísimo.
(The fact/act of sweeping the kitchen with that broom is very fast.)

That implied idea (el hecho, el acto, el proceso) is masculine singular, so Spanish uses rapidísimo in masculine singular as well.

You could also rephrase:

Barrer la cocina con esa escoba es una tarea rapidísima.
(Now tarea is feminine, so rapidísima becomes feminine.)

Could I say Es rapidísimo barrer la cocina con esa escoba instead? Is the word order flexible?

Yes, that word order is also correct and natural:

Barrer la cocina con esa escoba es rapidísimo.
Es rapidísimo barrer la cocina con esa escoba.

Both mean the same. The difference is focus:

Starting with Barrer la cocina… emphasizes the activity (sweeping the kitchen).
Starting with Es rapidísimo… emphasizes the evaluation (It’s super fast to…).

Spanish allows relatively flexible word order here, especially with infinitive phrases as subjects.

Can I say es muy rápido instead of es rapidísimo? Is there any grammatical problem?

Grammatically, there’s no problem:

Barrer la cocina con esa escoba es muy rápido. – This is correct.

Differences:

muy rápido – neutral, descriptive; just “very fast”
rapidísimo – stronger, more expressive; “super fast / extremely fast”

Both are fine; it’s a matter of tone and emphasis, not correctness.

Shouldn’t it be rápidamente (an adverb) rather than rápidísimo (an adjective)? We’re talking about how you sweep, right?

In Spanish, with structures like [infinitive] + es + adjective, the adjective often describes the action as a concept, not the manner of performing it:

Conducir de noche es peligroso. – Driving at night is dangerous.
Estudiar idiomas es divertido. – Studying languages is fun.
Barrer la cocina con esa escoba es rapidísimo. – Sweeping the kitchen with that broom is super fast.

You could use an adverb:

Se barre la cocina rapidísimamente con esa escoba. – You can sweep the kitchen very quickly with that broom.

But that sounds more marked and less natural in everyday speech. The structure with es + adjective treating the activity as a thing is very common and perfectly correct.

Is rapidísimo used in Spain the same way as in Latin America?

Yes. The -ísimo superlative is widely used across the Spanish‑speaking world, including Spain, and rapidísimo is understood everywhere.

What might change slightly is:

Frequency: some regions use muy + adjective more, others happily use -ísimo a lot.
Register: in everyday speech in Spain, rapidísimo is very normal and not particularly formal.

So Barrer la cocina con esa escoba es rapidísimo sounds completely natural in Spain.