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Anoche busqué la película de terror.

Anoche busqué la película de terror.
I searched for the horror movie last night.
From Lesson 137:Verbs like gustar (encantar, doler, importar)·Spanish (Latin America)

Questions & Answers about Anoche busqué la película de terror.

Why is the 'yo' form spelled busqué and not buscé?
Busqué comes from the verb buscar (to look for). In the preterite (completed past) tense, verbs ending in -car change the c to qu in the yo (I) form. This spelling change happens just to keep the hard "k" sound of the original verb. If you wrote buscé, it would be pronounced with an "s" sound.
Where is the word for "for" in this sentence? Doesn't the translation say "searched for"?
The Spanish verb buscar means "to look for" or "to search for." Because the idea of "for" is already built right into the verb, you never need to add a word like por or para after it.
Why does it say de terror instead of just putting the words together like "horror movie"?
In English, we often stack nouns together by putting "horror" in front of "movie". In Spanish, you can't stack nouns this way. Instead, you link them with de (of). So, a "horror movie" literally becomes la película de terror (the movie of horror).
Why are we using the preterite past tense (busqué) here instead of the imperfect tense?
The word anoche means "last night," which is a very specific, completed timeframe. Because the action of searching started and ended in that clearly defined window of time, it requires the preterite (completed past) tense.

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