What is quick?

What Does quick Mean

The etymology of raudo leads us to the Latin word rapĭdus . The term is used to describe what is fast, sudden or abrupt .

For example: "Upon hearing a scream, the policeman quickly approached the place, where he found the woman lying on the ground" , "The thief quickly left the house and was not caught" , "The president quickly expressed his solidarity with the opposition leader ” .
The rapid, in short, develops at great speed . It can also be an action that is carried out in a shorter period than usual.
Returning to the first of the examples mentioned, the agent who went "swiftly" to the area where he heard a scream moved without wasting time. A criminal who escapes "swiftly" , meanwhile, flees in a hurry, while the president who expresses "swift" his solidarity does not delay in making his sentiment public.

Quick action is usually forced by circumstances . Let us suppose that a man in his house notices that a fire has broken out in one of the rooms. The subject, noticing the flames and not having the means to put them out, chooses to rush out of his home to get to safety.
Take the case of a country in which its currency devalues 25% in just two days. This devaluation causes a rapid decline in the purchasing power of the population, since money suddenly loses part of its value and wages are used to buy fewer goods than before.
It is very important to point out and emphasize that the term raudo is an adjective and not an adverb. Unfortunately, in everyday speech we tend to confuse the two types of words, largely because non-language areas do not demand a high level of attention to their fundamentals, but rather forgive most of our mistakes as long as we "make ourselves understand".
To explain this particularity in greater depth we can resort to one of its most common synonyms: fast . It is not the same to say "The car moved fast" and "The car is very fast . " In the first sentence, fast acts as an adverb , while in the second its function is an adjective. Although the dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy recognizes the use of this term as a synonym for quickly , the latter offers us greater clarity and is preferred in academic texts.
Let us remember that the adverb modifies the verb, it gives us data to better understand the conditions in which it is carried out. In this case we are faced with an adverb of mode , because it explains "how the action is carried out." Returning to the word swift , the Royal Academy does not recognize it as a synonym for swiftly , so we must be very attentive when constructing our sentences to make sure we are expressing the correct idea .

In the first three examples presented in this article, the use of the term is intentionally ambiguous to reflect its appearance in the media and popular language. Let's go case by case to understand the true function that the adjective swift carries out in each of them. When we say "the policeman approached swiftly" , we are actually referring to the speed with which he approached , that is, the way in which he carried out the action; therefore, its use is incorrect, since we should choose the word quickly .
The same can be said of the thief and the president, who for different reasons gave high speed to their actions. In short, all three examples are incorrect from an academic point of view, although acceptable in popular speech.