A concrete example may help here. If you type M-x au TAB,
the TAB looks for alternatives (in this case, command names) that
start with `au'. There are only two: auto-fill-mode and
auto-save-mode. These are the same as far as auto-, so the
`au' in the minibuffer changes to `auto-'.
If you type TAB again immediately, there are multiple possibilities for the very next character--it could be `s' or `f'---so no more characters are added; instead, TAB displays a list of all possible completions in another window.
If you go on to type f TAB, this TAB sees
`auto-f'. The only command name starting this way is
auto-fill-mode, so completion fills in the rest of that. You now
have `auto-fill-mode' in the minibuffer after typing just au
TAB f TAB. Note that TAB has this effect because in
the minibuffer it is bound to the command minibuffer-complete
when completion is available.