LingoDrop
Spanish · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "antes" in Spanish?
AHN-tehs, stress on the first syllable, with a wide "ah" and a dry dental t.
Two syllables — AN-tes — with the stress on the first. The word ends in s, so the default rule points at the second-to-last syllable, and no accent is needed. Its opposite "después" does need one, which makes the pair a neat illustration of how the same s ending can produce two different accent outcomes depending on where the stress actually falls.
Listen: antes
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Sound it out
Hear it in a sentence
Llámame antes de salir.
Call me before you leave.
Listen: Llámame antes de salir.
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"Llámame antes de salir" attaches the pronoun to the command, and that extra syllable forces an accent onto "llámame" — without it, the stress would drift. "Antes de" needs the preposition before an infinitive, exactly as "después de" does. And the double l at the start is a y sound.
Where English speakers slip
Flatten the opening vowel toward English "ant" and you lose the wide "ah" of "father" that Spanish wants. The final s then gets voiced into a z. And learners drop the "de": "antes salir" is wrong, since a preposition is required before an infinitive or a noun, though "antes de que" is what you need before a full clause.