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El artesano agita la mezcla cuidadosa y precisamente.

El artesano agita la mezcla cuidadosa y precisamente.
The artisan shakes the mixture carefully and precisely.
From Lesson 283:Multiple adverbs (-mente)·Spanish (Latin America)

Questions & Answers about El artesano agita la mezcla cuidadosa y precisamente.

Why is it cuidadosa instead of cuidadosamente?
When you combine two or more adverbs that end in -mente, you drop the -mente from all of them except the very last one. The first word is left in its feminine singular adjective form (cuidadosa).
Is cuidadosa feminine because it matches la mezcla?
No, it has nothing to do with la mezcla. Adverbs ending in -mente are always built by adding -mente to the feminine singular form of an adjective. When you drop the -mente from the first adverb in a list, it simply reverts to that base feminine form and still acts as an adverb describing how the artisan shakes.
Can I just say cuidadosamente y precisamente?
While you might hear native speakers do this occasionally in casual, spontaneous speech, it sounds very repetitive. Dropping all but the final -mente is the grammatically correct and most natural way to speak and write in Spanish.
What verb does agita come from?
It comes from agitar, which means to shake or stir. You might recognize its similarity to the English word agitate, but in Spanish, it is the standard, everyday word for shaking a physical object, liquid, or mixture.

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