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Él limpia los engranajes minuciosa y delicadamente.

Él limpia los engranajes minuciosa y delicadamente.
He cleans the gears meticulously and delicately.
From Lesson 401:Coordinated adverbs·Spanish (Latin America)

Questions & Answers about Él limpia los engranajes minuciosa y delicadamente.

Why is it minuciosa instead of minuciosamente?
When you have two or more -mente adverbs joined by y (and) or o (or), Spanish drops the -mente ending from all of them except the very last one. This prevents the sentence from sounding heavy and repetitive.
Why is minuciosa in the feminine form here, even though Él and engranajes are masculine?
Adverbs don't change to match the gender of nouns or people. In Spanish, to make an adverb, you always start with the feminine singular form of the adjective (minuciosa) and add -mente. When you drop the -mente because of the double-adverb rule, you are still left with that feminine base form.
Could I reverse the order and say delicada y minuciosamente?
Yes, absolutely! The rule is strictly about position in the sentence, not the specific words. The first word is always reduced to its feminine singular form (delicada), and the final word keeps the full suffix (minuciosamente).
What if I wanted to add a third adverb, like "quickly" (rápidamente)?
The same rule applies to lists of any length: you only attach -mente to the very last one. The rest stay in their feminine singular forms. So if he cleaned them meticulously, quickly, and delicately, it would be: minuciosa, rápida y delicadamente.

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