Spanish · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "después" in Spanish?

Q: How do you pronounce después in Spanish?

después is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /desˈpwes/. It means “after / later.” des-PWEHS, two beats — the ue glides together and the accent puts the stress at the end.

des-PWEHS, two beats — the ue glides together and the accent puts the stress at the end.

después /desˈpwes/

Two syllables, des-PUÉS, and the accent is essential. The word ends in s, so the default rule would put the beat on the second-to-last syllable and give "DES-pues". The mark overrides it and moves the stress to the end. The ue counts as one diphthong, which is what keeps this a two-syllable word rather than three.

Listen: después

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Sound it out

des A dental d, a short "eh", and a hissing s. Unstressed, so it goes quickly, but every sound stays distinct.

pué An unaspirated p, then the u glides straight into the e as a w. One beat, "pweh", carrying the accent and the stress.

s A final voiceless hiss. Do not let it soften into a z, and do not drop it — it belongs to the word.

Hear it in a sentence

Después del trabajo voy al gimnasio.

After work I go to the gym.

Listen: Después del trabajo voy al gimnasio.

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"Después del trabajo voy al gimnasio" uses "después de" with the compulsory contraction into "del". Two contractions appear in one sentence — "del" and "al" — and Spanish requires both. "Gimnasio" has a g before i, which makes it the throaty j sound: heem-NA-syo.

Where English speakers slip

The ue gets split into two syllables, giving "des-poo-ES", when it should be a single glide. The accent then gets ignored, producing a front-stressed "DES-pwes". And the "de" gets dropped: "después el trabajo" is wrong, since "después" needs the preposition before a noun, though not before a clause.