El recuento empezó tarde.

late

Breakdown of El recuento empezó tarde.

• empezar: to start
• el recuento: the counting of votes

Questions & Answers about El recuento empezó tarde.

What does recuento mean exactly here?

Recuento means count, tally, or counting process. In many real contexts, it often refers to something like:

• a vote count
• a ballot count
• an official tally
• a recount in some situations

So it is not the everyday word for mathematical counting in general; it often sounds a bit more formal or procedural.

Why is it el recuento and not la recuento?

Because recuento is a masculine noun in Spanish, so it takes el in the singular:

• el recuento
• los recuentos

There is no special reason learners can easily predict here—you usually just learn the gender together with the noun.

What tense is empezó?

Empezó is the third-person singular preterite of empezar.

That means it can mean:

• he/she/it started
• it began
• the count started

In this sentence, the subject is el recuento, which is singular, so empezó matches it.

Why is empezó in the preterite and not empezaba?