  We investigate the way big rips are approached in a fully inhomogeneous
description of the space-time geometry. If the pressure and energy densities
are connected by a (supernegative) barotropic index, the spatial gradients and
the anisotropic expansion decay as the big rip is approached. This behaviour is
contrasted with the usual big-bang singularities. A similar analysis is
performed in the case of sudden (quiescent) singularities and it is argued that
the spatial gradients may well be non-negligible in the vicinity of pressure
singularities.
