La konkurso komenciĝas post la muziko.

Komenciĝas means begins or starts.

It can be broken down like this:

• komenc- = the idea of beginning
• -iĝ- = becoming / starting to be in a certain state; often makes a verb intransitive
• -as = present tense

So komenciĝas is basically begins or comes into being as started.

In normal English, we would just say begins.

This is a very common question.

• komenci usually means to begin something or to start something
• komenciĝi means to begin / to start, with no direct object

So:

• Mi komencas la ludon. = I start the game.
• La ludo komenciĝas. = The game begins.

In your sentence, the competition is not starting something else. It is itself beginning, so komenciĝas is the natural choice.

-as marks the present tense in Esperanto.

So:

• komenciĝas = begins / is beginning
• komenciĝis = began
• komenciĝos = will begin

Esperanto verb endings are very regular, so once you learn them, they are easy to recognize.

La is Esperanto’s definite article, meaning the.

So:

• la konkurso = the competition
• la muziko = the music

Esperanto has only one definite article: la. It does not change for gender, number, or case.

A learner may also notice that Esperanto often uses la when the speaker means a specific thing already known from context.

Usually, la muziko here sounds like a specific musical performance, piece, or scheduled music segment, not music in general as an abstract idea.

So the sentence most naturally suggests something like:

• the competition begins after the music program
• the competition begins after the musical part

If you meant music in a very general sense, you would often not use la.

Post means after.

In this sentence, it shows time:

• post la muziko = after the music

But post can also sometimes refer to position, depending on context, like behind or after in order.

Here, because of the sentence meaning, it is clearly about time.

Because muziko is the object of the preposition post, and prepositions normally do not require the accusative -n in ordinary use.

So:

• post la muziko is correct

In Esperanto, -n is mainly used for:

• the direct object
• movement toward something
• some time/measure expressions

Here, la muziko is simply part of the prepositional phrase post la muziko, so no -n is needed.

Yes. Esperanto word order is fairly flexible.

The normal neutral order here is:

• La konkurso komenciĝas post la muziko.

But you could also say:

• Post la muziko komenciĝas la konkurso.
• Post la muziko la konkurso komenciĝas.

These alternatives are understandable, but the original version sounds straightforward and neutral.

Yes. Konkurso is a normal word for competition, contest, or competitive event.

Depending on context, English might translate it as:

• competition
• contest
• tournament

But competition is the safest general translation.

A rough pronunciation is:

ko-men-TSI-ghas

A few helpful points:

• c is pronounced like ts
• ĝ is pronounced like the j in judge
• a is like ah
• the stress is on the second-to-last syllable: komenCIĝas

So the stress falls on ci.