Breakdown of Anoche crucé la calle sin mirar el semáforo.
la calle
the street
mirar
to look
sin
without
cruzar
to cross
anoche
last night
el semáforo
the traffic light
Questions & Answers about Anoche crucé la calle sin mirar el semáforo.
Why is it crucé with a c instead of cruzé with a z?
The verb is cruzar (to cross). In the simple past tense, verbs ending in -zar change the z to a c in the yo (I) form. This spelling change (crucé) happens because Spanish spelling rules generally avoid writing ze or zi, replacing them with ce and ci to keep the same sound.
Why does the sentence use the infinitive mirar instead of a word ending in -ando for looking?
In English we say without looking, but in Spanish, any verb that immediately follows a preposition like sin (without), para (for), or de (of) must be in the infinitive form. That is why it is sin mirar.
Is anoche the reason we use the completed past tense here?
Yes! Anoche means last night. Since it refers to a specific time period that is completely finished, it triggers the Pretérito Indefinido (completed past tense) rather than the Imperfect tense.
Why does semáforo have an accent mark?
The accent mark tells you to stress the má syllable when speaking. If it didn't have an accent, the natural Spanish pronunciation rules would put the stress on the second-to-last syllable (fo). In Spanish, any word stressed on the third-to-last syllable always gets a written accent.
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