Breakdown of Mi tía les explicó que la búsqueda del origen había terminado.
mi
my
del
of the / from the / about the (topic)
que
that (relative pronoun, conjunction)
la tía
the aunt
terminar
to finish / to end up (in a state) / to quite manage (in negatives, + infinitive)
les
to them / to you (formal, plural)
explicar
to explain
haber
to have (auxiliary)
la búsqueda
the search
el origen
the origin
Questions & Answers about Mi tía les explicó que la búsqueda del origen había terminado.
Why do we use the Past Perfect (había terminado) here instead of the Present Perfect (ha terminado)?
This is a classic example of reported speech. Because the reporting verb explicó is in the past, the tense of the original quote shifts one step further back into the past. If your aunt originally said 'La búsqueda ha terminado' (The search has finished), reporting it later turns it into había terminado (had finished).
What is the purpose of les before explicó?
les is the indirect object pronoun meaning 'to them' (or 'to you all'). With verbs of communication like explicar (to explain) or decir (to say), Spanish uses indirect object pronouns to clarify exactly who is receiving the information.
Why does the word búsqueda have a written accent mark?
In Spanish, words that have their natural spoken emphasis on the third-to-last syllable always require a written accent mark. If you sound it out, you will notice the stress falls heavily on the first part: bús-que-da.
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