Breakdown of La factura sobrepasa el ahorro más rápido de lo que estimamos.
de
from / of
rápido
fast
que
that / than
más
more
la
the (feminine)
lo
the ... thing (neuter article)
la factura
the bill
estimar
to estimate
sobrepasar
to exceed (to surpass, overtake)
el ahorro
the savings
Questions & Answers about La factura sobrepasa el ahorro más rápido de lo que estimamos.
Why do we use de lo que here instead of just que?
We use de lo que because we are comparing an adverb (rápido) with a full clause containing a conjugated verb (estimamos). If we were just comparing two nouns or two adjectives directly, we would use que. But when the second part of a comparison of inequality is a conjugated verb, the bridge to connect them is de lo que.
Could we use del que or de los que in this sentence instead?
No. You use del que, de la que, de los que, or de las que when the comparison quantifies a specific noun (for example, if we were talking about having more bills than we estimated). Here, the comparison is about how fast something is happening (the adverb rápido). Since it doesn't refer to a specific noun, we use the neuter phrase de lo que.
Shouldn't it be más rápidamente if it's describing how the bill exceeds the savings?
You can definitely say más rápidamente, but in everyday Spanish, it is very common to drop the -mente and just use the masculine singular form of certain adjectives as adverbs. Rápido is one of the most frequent words to do this. Here, it is functioning as an adverb modifying the verb sobrepasa.
Since estimamos is the same in both present and past tense, how do we know which one it is here?
You have to rely on context! The word estimamos is the nosotros form for both the present indicative (we estimate) and the preterite (we estimated). The English translation here uses the present, but in a real conversation, this exact Spanish sentence could just as easily mean "faster than we estimated" if you were talking about a past prediction.
Why is el ahorro singular when the English translation says "the savings"?
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