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Él rebuscó en el sofá, porque no estaba seguro.

Él rebuscó en el sofá, porque no estaba seguro.
He searched thoroughly in the sofa, because he was not sure.
From Lesson 231:Expressing probability (a lo mejor)·Spanish (Latin America)

Questions & Answers about Él rebuscó en el sofá, porque no estaba seguro.

What does rebuscó mean, and how is it different from buscó?
Buscar means "to look for" or "to search." Adding the prefix re- makes it stronger, so rebuscar means "to search thoroughly," "to rummage," or "to search high and low." Here, he wasn't just looking; he was really digging into the sofa!
Why is it el sofá when the word ends in an "-a"?
Sofá is one of those exception words that ends in "-a" but is masculine. Other common examples you might remember from earlier lessons are el problema, el mapa, and el clima.
Why do we use estaba instead of era for "was sure"?
When talking about a person being certain or sure of a fact, you always use estar (estar seguro). If you use ser (ser seguro), it completely changes the meaning to "to be safe" or "to be reliable" (like a safe neighborhood or a reliable car).
Why is one verb in the preterite (rebuscó) and the other in the imperfect (estaba)?
Rebuscó is in the preterite because the physical act of searching the sofa was a specific, completed event in the past. Estaba is in the imperfect because it describes an ongoing state or background condition (his feeling of uncertainty) that was happening at the same time.

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