Learn Hardcore Spanish (Spain): El partido de ayer fue larguísimo pero emocionante. - Yesterday’s match was very long but exciting.

El partido de ayer = “yesterday’s match”
- Here de ayer works almost like an adjective, directly modifying partido.
- It’s a fixed, compact way to label that specific match: the match from yesterday.
El partido ayer fue larguísimo… = “The match yesterday was very long…”
- Here ayer is an adverb of time modifying the whole clause, not just partido.
- It sounds more like you’re adding “yesterday” as extra information to the sentence.

In everyday Spanish, “El partido de ayer” is the most natural way to say “yesterday’s match” as a noun phrase. You cannot say “El ayer partido” because ayer is an adverb, not an adjective, so it can’t go in front of the noun like that.

Why is “fue” used instead of “era” or “estaba”?

Fue is the preterite of ser, used for:
- Completed events with a clear beginning and end.
- Overall evaluations of past events.

Here, we’re giving a summary judgment of the match as a completed event:
El partido de ayer fue larguísimo pero emocionante.
= Yesterday’s match was (overall) extremely long but exciting.

Era (imperfect) would sound more like:
- A background description at some point in the past.
- Less like a complete summary, more like “it used to be / it was (at that time)”.
Estaba is from estar:
- With events, Spanish usually uses ser, not estar:
  - El partido fue en Madrid. (The match was in Madrid.)
  - La fiesta fue aburrida. (The party was boring.)

So for how an event was, and as a complete judgment, fue (preterite of ser) is the normal, natural choice.

Why are the adjectives “larguísimo” and “emocionante” placed after “fue” instead of before “partido”?

In this sentence they are predicate adjectives, not adjectives directly attached to the noun.

Structure: El partido de ayer / fue / larguísimo pero emocionante.
- El partido de ayer = subject
- fue = verb (ser)
- larguísimo pero emocionante = complement / predicate

Spanish often uses ser + adjective to describe the subject:

El partido fue largo. – The match was long.
El partido fue emocionante. – The match was exciting.

You could also say:

El larguísimo pero emocionante partido de ayer…

But that’s more literary/formal and puts a lot of information before the noun. The original version is the most neutral and natural for a simple statement.

What exactly does “larguísimo” mean, and how is it formed?

Larguísimo is the absolute superlative of largo (long).

largo → larguísimo = very/ extremely long

How it’s formed:

Take the adjective largo.
Drop the final -o.
Add -ísimo: larg-ísimo.
Spell it larguísimo (with gu):
- Before i or e, g would normally sound like the h in huge (soft g /x/).
- Adding a silent u (guí) keeps the hard g sound: [lar-GEE-see-mo].

Meaning nuance:

muy largo = very long
larguísimo = extremely long, really really long
It often sounds a bit more emphatic or expressive than just muy largo.

You cannot say “muy larguísimo”; Spanish usually doesn’t stack muy on top of -ísimo.

Why is it “pero” and not “sino”?

Both can translate as “but”, but they’re used differently.

pero = but / however
- Adds a contrast or limitation:
  - Fue larguísimo, pero emocionante.
    It was very long, but (still) exciting.
sino = but rather / but instead
- Used mainly after a negation, to correct or replace something:
  - No fue aburrido, sino emocionante.
    It wasn’t boring, but (rather) exciting.

In your sentence there is no negation, so sino would be wrong. The correct conjunction of contrast is pero.

Why is it “larguísimo” with -o, and “emocionante” with -e? Do they agree with “partido”?

Yes, both adjectives agree (in their own ways) with el partido, which is masculine singular:

larguísimo:
- Ends in -o, so it changes with gender and number:
  - el partido larguísimo
  - la película larguísima
  - los partidos larguísimos
  - las películas larguísimas
emocionante:
- Ends in -e, which is invariable in gender:
  - el partido emocionante
  - la película emocionante
- For plural, just add -s:
  - los partidos emocionantes
  - las películas emocionantes

So in “El partido de ayer fue larguísimo pero emocionante”:

partido = masculine singular
larguísimo = masculine singular form
emocionante = singular form (same for both genders)

What is the difference between “partido” and “juego” in Spain?

In Peninsular Spanish:

partido is the normal word for a sports match:
- un partido de fútbol – a football/soccer match
- un partido de tenis – a tennis match
- El partido de ayer fue larguísimo.
juego is more general: game, play:
- un juego de mesa – a board game
- un videojuego – a video game
- el juego can also mean “play” as an abstract idea (the act of playing).

So for a specific sports match, especially in Spain, you would almost always say partido, not juego.

Could I move “ayer” to another place, like “Ayer el partido fue larguísimo…”?

Yes, you can, but the meaning and structure change slightly.

El partido de ayer fue larguísimo…
- “Yesterday’s match was…”
- de ayer behaves like an adjective attached to partido.
Ayer el partido fue larguísimo…
- “Yesterday, the match was very long…”
- ayer is now a time adverb modifying the whole sentence.
- It doesn’t label the match, it just situates the statement in time.
El partido fue larguísimo ayer.
- Grammatically possible, but sounds less natural.
- Time adverbs usually go at the beginning or end, but here it feels a bit tacked on.

The most idiomatic way to say “yesterday’s match” as a noun phrase is “el partido de ayer”.

Should there be a comma before “pero”, like “larguísimo, pero emocionante”?

In this specific sentence, the usual and most natural written form is without a comma:

El partido de ayer fue larguísimo pero emocionante.

Reason: “pero” is joining two adjectives that share the same verb and subject:

fue larguísimo pero emocionante

In Spanish, when pero links two short, similar parts (like two adjectives) with the same subject and verb, no comma is normally used:

Era alto pero delgado.
Es caro pero bueno.

A comma is more typical when pero joins larger clauses:

Quería ir al partido, pero estaba enfermo.

How do you pronounce “fue larguísimo pero emocionante”, and what are the stress patterns?

Syllables and stress:

fue – one syllable: fweh
par-ti-do – stress on ti: par-TEE-do
a-yer – stress on yer: a-YER
lar-güí-si-mo (spelled larguísimo) – stress on güí: lar-GWEE-si-mo
- The accent on í marks the stressed syllable.
- gui here is pronounced like “gee” in geese, with a hard g* sound and silent u.
pe-ro – stress on pe: PE-ro
e-mo-cio-nan-te – stress on nan: e-mo-cio-NAN-te

Overall rhythm:
el par-TI-do de a-YER fue lar-GUÍ-si-mo pe-ro e-mo-cio-NAN-te

(Phonetic approximations in English are rough, but the key point is which syllable carries the stress.)