Breakdown of La montaña rusa acelera y es rapidísima.
ser
to be
y
and
rápido
fast
la montaña rusa
the rollercoaster
acelerar
to accelerate
Questions & Answers about La montaña rusa acelera y es rapidísima.
Why is "rapidísima" used here instead of just saying "muy rápida"?
How do you form "rapidísima" from "rápida", and why does the accent mark move?
To form it, you drop the final vowel of the adjective (rápida becomes rapid-) and add the ending -ísima. The accent mark shifts because words ending in -ísimo or -ísima are always stressed on the third-to-last syllable. In Spanish, all words stressed on the third-to-last syllable must have a written accent mark, resulting in rapidísima.
Why does this sentence use "es" (ser) instead of "está" (estar) to say the rollercoaster is fast?
Wait, "montaña rusa" literally means "Russian mountain"? Why is that the word for a rollercoaster?
Yes! The term montaña rusa literally translates to "Russian mountain." This is because the earliest predecessors to modern rollercoasters were winter sled rides built on constructed hills of ice in 17th-century Russia. The name stuck in Spanish and several other languages even after the rides evolved into the mechanical versions we know today.
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