Question 1

How does de todos modos work in this sentence?

Accepted Answer

De todos modos translates to 'anyway' or 'in any case.' It is a concessive discourse marker, which is just a term for a phrase that introduces an unexpected outcome. Even though the date was terrible, the speaker stayed anyway. You can also use de todas formas here with the exact same meaning.

Question 2

Does fatal mean the date was deadly?

Accepted Answer

No, this is a common false friend. While fatal can mean deadly in medical or accident contexts, in everyday Spanish it is much more often used to mean terrible, awful, or disastrous. So, la cita fue fatal just means the date went terribly wrong.

Question 3

Why use fue (the past tense of ser) instead of estuvo (from estar) to say how the date went?

Accepted Answer

You use ser to talk about events taking place, like a date, a party, or a meeting, and to evaluate how they went as a whole. Because a date is an event, you say la cita fue fatal rather than using estar, which is typically reserved for physical locations, ongoing states, or temporary conditions.

Question 4

Why is there a me before quedé?

Accepted Answer

The verb here is quedarse, a pronominal verb that requires a pronoun like me, te, or se. While quedar without the pronoun usually means to arrange to meet or to have something left over, adding the pronoun to make it quedarse changes the meaning to 'to stay' or 'to remain.' Since the speaker stayed on the date, they use me quedé.

La cita fue fatal, pero me quedé de todos modos.

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