A2
acabar de — the recent past
How acabar de expresses the immediate past in Spanish, why it stays in the present, and how it differs from acabar alone.
Conjugate acabar in the present, add de, then the infinitive. It means the action has only just happened.
Acabo de comer.
I-finish of to-eat
I’ve just eaten.
Acaba de salir.
he-finishes of to-leave
He’s just left.
It stays in the present
The verb refers to the past and the tense does not. This is the part that feels wrong and is right.
Acabé de comer.
Acabo de comer.
Acabé de comer is a real sentence meaning I finished eating, which is a statement about when you stopped rather than about how recently. Only the present carries the just sense.
The one other tense it takes is the imperfect, for something that had just happened: acababa de salir cuando llamaste.
The matched pair
Spanish has one construction for what just happened and one for what is about to.
| acabo de salir | I’ve just left |
| voy a salir | I’m about to leave |
Both put a verb in the present for something outside it — see ir a + infinitive.
acabar alone means to finish
La película acaba a las diez.
the film finishes at the ten
The film ends at ten.
Losing the de does not produce an error but a different statement, which is harder to notice.
acabar con is a third thing
To put an end to, and often destructive: acabar con el problema.