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Anoche tuve un sueño raro y me desperté temprano.

Anoche tuve un sueño raro y me desperté temprano.
Last night I had a strange dream and I woke up early.
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Questions & Answers about Anoche tuve un sueño raro y me desperté temprano.

Why does the sentence start with Anoche? Can I move it?

Anoche (last night) is a time expression, and Spanish often places time words at the beginning to set the scene. You can move it:

  • Tuve un sueño raro anoche y me desperté temprano.
  • Anoche tuve un sueño raro y temprano me desperté. (less natural) The most natural is usually either at the start or near the verb it relates to.
Why is tuve used instead of tenía?

Tuve is the preterite of tener and presents the dream as a completed event (you had it, it happened). Tenía (imperfect) would sound more like background/ongoing description, often implying another event interrupted it:

  • Anoche tenía un sueño raro cuando me desperté = I was having a weird dream when I woke up.
How do I know tuve comes from tener?
It’s an irregular preterite form: tener → tuve, tuviste, tuvo, tuvimos, tuvisteis, tuvieron. Many high-frequency verbs have irregular preterites, and tuve is one of the most common to memorize.
Does un sueño raro mean I dreamed, or that I had a dream?
Literally it’s I had a weird dream, but in natural English it equals I had/weirdly dreamt. Spanish commonly uses tener un sueño to express having a (particular) dream.
Why is it un sueño raro and not un raro sueño?

Both are possible, but they feel different:

  • un sueño raro = a dream that was strange/weird (more neutral, most common)
  • un raro sueño = a peculiar/unusual dream (more literary/emphatic) Adjective position can slightly change nuance.
What does raro mean here—rare or weird?
With people/things/experiences, raro usually means weird/strange. Rare in the sense of uncommon can also be raro, but here with sueño it’s almost always weird.
Why is me desperté reflexive? What does me add?

Despertarse is commonly used to mean to wake up (yourself), so Spanish uses a reflexive pronoun: me, te, se, nos, se.
Despertar without reflexive often means to wake someone/something up:

  • Me desperté temprano = I woke up early.
  • Desperté a mi hermano = I woke my brother up.
Why is it desperté and not despertaba?

Me desperté (preterite) treats waking up as a single completed action (the moment you woke). Me despertaba (imperfect) would describe an ongoing process or repeated habit:

  • Me despertaba temprano todos los días = I used to wake up early every day.
What does temprano mean grammatically here—adjective or adverb?

Here temprano functions as an adverb meaning early and describes the verb me desperté. Spanish often uses the same form for adjective/adverb with temprano/tarde:

  • Me desperté temprano = I woke up early. (adverb)
  • Es temprano = It’s early. (adjective/predicate)
Could I say por la mañana instead of temprano?

Yes, but it changes the meaning:

  • Me desperté temprano = I woke up early (relative to normal).
  • Me desperté por la mañana = I woke up in the morning (time of day, not necessarily early). You can combine them: Me desperté temprano por la mañana.
Do I need the y? Could I use a different connector?

Y simply links two past events. You can swap it depending on the relationship:

  • ... y me desperté temprano = and I woke up early (simple sequence/extra info)
  • ..., así que me desperté temprano = so I woke up early (cause-effect)
  • ..., pero me desperté temprano = but I woke up early (contrast)
Why are there no accent marks in Anoche tuve un sueño raro y me desperté temprano, except in desperté?

Accent marks depend on stress rules and pronunciation:

  • desperté needs an accent to mark stress on the final syllable (and to distinguish it from other forms like desperte which would follow default stress rules).
  • anoche, tuve, un, sueño, raro, y, me, temprano follow normal stress/spelling rules without written accents (note sueño has ñ, which is a separate letter, not an accent mark).