Elon.io is an online learning platform
We have an entire course teaching Spanish (Latin America) grammar and vocabulary.
Questions & Answers about Anoche completé la tarea.
Why does completé have an accent mark on the last letter?
The accent mark shows that the word is in the past tense (preterite) for "I". Completar is a regular -ar verb. To say "I completed", you drop the -ar and add -é. If you didn't have the accent mark and wrote completo, it would mean "I complete" in the present tense! The accent also tells you to stress that last syllable when speaking.
Why isn't the word yo (I) in this sentence?
In Spanish, you can usually leave out subject pronouns like yo because the verb ending already tells us who is doing the action. The -é ending on completé can only mean "I did it" in the preterite tense. You would only add yo if you wanted to emphasize that you completed it, as opposed to someone else.
Is anoche a combination of two words?
Historically, yes! It comes from the words for "at" and "night", but today it is just one single word meaning "last night". Time markers like anoche or ayer (yesterday) are great clues that you need to use the preterite tense, because they point to an action that happened in the past and is completely finished.
Does tarea always mean "homework"?