Breakdown of Después de la terapia respiro profundamente y me siento más tranquilo.
Questions & Answers about Después de la terapia respiro profundamente y me siento más tranquilo.
In Spanish, the subject pronoun (like yo, tú, él) is often dropped because the verb ending already shows who the subject is.
- respiro = I breathe (the -o ending shows it’s yo)
- me siento = I feel (again, -o shows yo)
You only add yo when you want to emphasize it, for example:
- Después de la terapia yo respiro profundamente…
(I do, as opposed to someone else.)
In neutral sentences like this one, you normally leave yo out.
When después is followed by a noun, it must use de:
- después de + noun
- después de la terapia
- después de la comida
- después del trabajo (de + el → del)
después la terapia is grammatically incorrect.
If you don’t mention a noun and just say “afterwards,” then you use después alone:
- Después respiro profundamente. = Afterwards I breathe deeply.
Both are possible, but there is a nuance:
después de la terapia
- Sounds more like a specific therapy session or process.
- Common and very natural.
después de terapia
- Feels a bit more like “after (doing) therapy / after therapy in general.”
- You may hear this, especially in more casual speech, but la is very common and often preferred.
If you’re thinking of “after my therapy session,” después de la terapia is the safest, most natural choice.
Both are acceptable:
- Después de la terapia respiro profundamente…
- Después de la terapia, respiro profundamente…
In Spanish, a comma after a short introductory phrase like this is optional. Many writers include it for clarity (especially in more formal writing), but leaving it out is not wrong.
The present tense in Spanish can express:
Habitual actions (what usually happens):
- Después de la terapia respiro profundamente y me siento más tranquilo.
= Every time (or usually) after therapy, this is what happens.
- Después de la terapia respiro profundamente y me siento más tranquilo.
A sequence that feels “immediate” (like in storytelling):
- You describe it as if it’s happening now.
If you wanted to talk about one specific session in the past, you’d normally use the preterite:
- Después de la terapia respiré profundamente y me sentí más tranquilo.
= After the therapy (session), I breathed deeply and felt calmer (that time).
In Spanish, adverbs like profundamente usually come after the verb:
- respiro profundamente = I breathe deeply
You can put it before the verb:
- Profundamente respiro…
…but that sounds poetic, literary, or very unusual in everyday speech. For normal conversation, verb + adverb is the natural word order:
- hablo lentamente
- como rápido
- respiro profundamente
They are very close in meaning:
respiro profundamente
- Literally “I breathe deeply.”
- A bit more neutral/formal.
respiro hondo
- Very common in everyday speech.
- Also means “I take a deep breath / I breathe deeply.”
respiro profundo
- Grammatically okay, but you usually say:
- respiro profundo (less common)
- or respiro profundamente / respiro hondo (more common).
- Grammatically okay, but you usually say:
In Latin American Spanish, respiro profundamente and respiro hondo are both very natural; hondo might sound a bit more colloquial.
Spanish distinguishes between:
sentir (non‑reflexive) = to feel something / to sense / to regret
- Siento frío. = I feel cold.
- Lo siento. = I’m sorry.
- Siento un dolor en el pecho. = I feel a pain in my chest.
sentirse (reflexive) + adjective / adverb = to feel a certain way
- Me siento cansado. = I feel tired.
- Me siento más tranquilo. = I feel calmer.
In this sentence you’re describing your emotional/mental state with an adjective (tranquilo), so you must use the reflexive form: me siento, not siento.
Both are grammatically correct, but they have slightly different nuances:
Me siento más tranquilo.
- Literally “I feel calmer.”
- Emphasizes your subjective perception of your state.
Estoy más tranquilo.
- Literally “I am calmer.”
- States your condition; also very common and natural.
In many real situations, they are almost interchangeable:
- Después de la terapia estoy más tranquilo.
- Después de la terapia me siento más tranquilo.
You would not say soy más tranquilo here—that would mean “I am (by nature) calmer,” which describes a permanent trait, not how you feel after therapy.
The adjective must agree in gender and number with the subject:
If the speaker is male:
- Me siento más tranquilo. (masculine, singular)
If the speaker is female:
- Me siento más tranquila. (feminine, singular)
For a group:
- All males / mixed group: Nos sentimos más tranquilos.
- All females: Nos sentimos más tranquilas.
In the given sentence, tranquilo assumes the speaker is male. For a female speaker, you would definitely change it to tranquila.
Each option expresses a different idea:
tranquilo = calm
- Me siento tranquilo. = I feel calm.
más tranquilo = more calm / calmer than before
- Me siento más tranquilo.
= I feel calmer (compared to before the therapy).
- Me siento más tranquilo.
muy tranquilo = very calm
- Me siento muy tranquilo. = I feel very calm.
In your sentence, más tranquilo highlights the contrast: after therapy, your level of calmness has increased compared to before.
Spanish changes y to e only before words that start with the sound /i/ (like i, hi + vowel) to avoid an awkward repetition:
- padres e hijos (not padres y hijos)
- agua e hielo
But siento starts with /s/, not with /i/, so the normal y is used:
- …respiro profundamente y me siento más tranquilo.
If the next word sounded like it began with i, you would use e. Here, that’s not the case.
Yes, después always takes an accent on the é:
- Correct: después
- Incorrect: despues
The accent mark shows where the stress falls: des‑pués.
Without the accent, it would be a spelling mistake; there is no separate word “despues” with a different meaning.