La pausa es breve pero importante.

The pause is brief but important.

Breakdown of La pausa es breve pero importante.

• ser: to be
• importante: important
• pero: but
• breve: brief
• la pausa: the pause

Questions & Answers about La pausa es breve pero importante.

Why does the sentence use la before pausa? In English we just say “pause” without “the.”

Spanish uses definite articles (el, la, los, las) more often than English, especially when we talk about things in a general or abstract way.

• La pausa es breve pero importante.
  Literally: The pause is brief but important.

Here la can be:

• a specific pause (for example, a pause in a speech), or
• the idea of “the pause” in general, as a concept.

In English, you might translate it as:

• The pause is brief but important. (with “the”), or
• The pause is short but important. or even
• A short but important pause.

In Spanish, leaving out the article (Pausa es breve…) sounds wrong here. You normally need la with a singular, countable noun used as a subject.

Why is pausa feminine? How do I know it’s la pausa, not el pausa?

Nouns in Spanish have grammatical gender, and pausa happens to be feminine, so it uses la.

Some patterns:

• Nouns ending in -a are often feminine: la casa, la mesa, la pausa.
• But there are exceptions (e.g. el día, el problema), so you need to learn common words with their article.

You can think of vocabulary as:

• la pausa = the feminine noun “pause,” always with feminine articles and adjectives:
  • la pausa breve
  • una pausa importante
  • las pausas breves

Why is it es and not está? What’s the difference between La pausa es breve and La pausa está breve?

Here es (from ser) is correct because we’re describing a “normal” or essential characteristic of the pause in this context.

• La pausa es breve.
  = The pause is brief (that’s its general or defined characteristic).

Estar (está) is usually for states, conditions, locations, or temporary situations.
You might hear está breve in very informal or regional speech, but the standard, natural way to talk about the length of something as a description is with ser:

• La película es corta. – The movie is short.
• La reunión es larga. – The meeting is long.
• La pausa es breve. – The pause is brief.

So here: es, not está.

Why are breve and importante at the end, after the verb, instead of before the noun?

In Spanish, adjectives usually go after the noun when they describe it:

• la pausa breve
• la pausa importante

In your sentence, both adjectives describe the subject pausa, but they are placed after the verb es:

• La pausa (subject)
  es (verb)
  breve pero importante (adjectives describing pausa)

This is a very common pattern:
[Subject] + es/son + [adjective(s)]

• La casa es grande.
• El café es fuerte.
• La pausa es breve pero importante.

If you put adjectives before a noun, it often gives a more subjective, emotional, or stylistic nuance and changes the focus:

• la importante pausa – the important pause (emphasis on important, maybe in a literary/context-heavy way)

But in your sentence, we’re just describing it neutrally, so after the verb is normal.

Do breve and importante have to agree with pausa in gender and number?

Yes, adjectives in Spanish must agree with the noun in number (singular/plural) and usually in gender (masculine/feminine).

Here:

• pausa = feminine, singular
• breve = same form for masculine and feminine, singular
• importante = same form for masculine and feminine, singular

So:

• La pausa es breve pero importante.

If the noun were plural:

• Las pausas son breves pero importantes.

Notice how:

• breve → breves
• importante → importantes

Some adjectives, like breve and importante, don’t change for gender, only for number. Others, like corto/corta, do change for gender:

• La pausa es corta. (feminine, singular)
• El descanso es corto. (masculine, singular)
• Las pausas son cortas.
• Los descansos son cortos.

What’s the difference between breve and corto? Could I say La pausa es corta instead?

You can say La pausa es corta, and it’s correct. The nuance is a bit different:

• breve = brief; often a little more formal, commonly used for time, speeches, texts, pauses, etc.
• corto/a = short; used for length (physical or time), more general and very common in everyday speech.

Typical uses:

• una pausa breve – a brief pause (slightly more formal/literary)
• una pausa corta – a short pause (very natural, everyday)

Many times they overlap, and both are fine. In this sentence:

• La pausa es breve pero importante.
• La pausa es corta pero importante.

Both are acceptable; breve just sounds a bit more “elegant” or formal.

Why is it pero and not y or sino?

Each connector has a different meaning:

• y = and (adds similar or compatible ideas)
• pero = but (adds a contrasting or unexpected idea)
• sino = but rather / but instead (corrects or replaces a previous statement)

In the sentence:

• La pausa es breve pero importante.

We have a contrast:
It’s brief (maybe sounds unimportant), but it’s actually important.

Using y would lose the contrast:

• La pausa es breve y importante.
  = The pause is brief and important. (Just listing two qualities.)

Using sino would be wrong here, because sino is for correcting something negative:

• No es larga, sino breve. – It’s not long, but rather short.

So pero is the correct choice to show contrast.

Could I say La breve pausa es importante instead? Is that the same?

You can say La breve pausa es importante, and it’s grammatically correct, but the emphasis changes slightly:

• La pausa es breve pero importante.
  Focus: First on the pause being brief; then contrasts that with its importance.

• La breve pausa es importante.
  Focus: You’re presenting “the brief pause” as a unit and then stating that it’s important.

Word order in Spanish can shift emphasis:

• Adjectives after the noun are more neutral/descriptive.
• Adjectives before the noun can add a touch of style, subjectivity, or focus.

Both are fine; they just highlight different aspects.

Is there any difference between Latin American Spanish and Spain Spanish in this sentence?

No, this sentence is the same in both Latin American and European Spanish:

• La pausa es breve pero importante.

Pronunciation might differ slightly by accent, but the words, grammar, and meaning are identical and equally natural everywhere.

How do you pronounce each word in La pausa es breve pero importante?

Approximate pronunciation (Latin American standard):

• La – “lah”
• pausa – “PAW-sah”
  
  • pau like “pow”
  • stress on PAU: PAU-sa
• es – “ehs”
• breve – “BREH-veh”
  
  • stress on BRE
• pero – “PEH-roh”
  
  • the r is a single tap, similar to the tt in American English “butter”
• importante – “eem-por-TAN-teh”
  
  • stress on TAN

Stress pattern:
la PAU-sa es BRE-ve PE-ro im-por-TAN-te

Could I drop es and say La pausa, breve pero importante?

Yes, in some contexts (especially written, stylistic, or poetic language), you might see:

• La pausa, breve pero importante, …

But that’s incomplete on its own; it usually needs more, like:

• La pausa, breve pero importante, ayuda a entender el mensaje. – The pause, brief but important, helps to understand the message.

In your original example as a full sentence describing something, you normally keep es:

• La pausa es breve pero importante.

If I change it to plural, how does the whole sentence change?

Singular:

• La pausa es breve pero importante.

Plural:

• Las pausas son breves pero importantes.

Changes:

• la pausa → las pausas
• es → son
• breve → breves
• importante → importantes

Everything agrees in number (plural) with pausas.