Breakdown of El precio bajó sospechosamente, es barato barato.
ser
to be
barato
cheap
bajar
to go down / to lower
el precio
the price
sospechosamente
suspiciously
Questions & Answers about El precio bajó sospechosamente, es barato barato.
Why is the word barato repeated as barato barato?
Since the price just dropped, shouldn't it be está barato instead of es barato?
That is a great observation! Normally, a change in price triggers estar (as in, 'it is cheap right now'). However, by using ser (es), the speaker is making a stronger claim: they are classifying the item itself as fundamentally a 'dirt cheap' thing. This permanent label makes the sudden drop feel even more suspicious.
Quick refresher: how do we form adverbs like sospechosamente?
Adverbs ending in -mente (which is equivalent to the English '-ly') are built from the feminine singular form of the adjective. You take sospechoso, change it to the feminine sospechosa, and add -mente to get sospechosamente.
Why use the preterite bajó here instead of the imperfect bajaba?
We use the preterite bajó because the speaker is treating the price drop as a single, completed event with a definitive result, rather than a gradual, ongoing process or background information in the past (bajaba).
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