Learn Hardcore Spanish (Spain): Después de haberse secado, la ropa está lista. - After having dried, the clothes are ready.

Because after the preposition después de you must use an infinitive. To express a prior, completed action, Spanish uses the perfect infinitive: haber + participio. With a pronominal verb like secarse, the clitic goes attached to the infinitive: haberse secado. A finite form like se ha secado cannot follow a preposition.

Where does the pronoun se go in this structure? Could I say Después de se haber secado?

No. With an infinitive after a preposition, object/reflexive pronouns are enclitic (attached to the end). The only correct placement here is haberse secado. Forms like se haber secado or haber se secado are not standard.

Could I just say Después de secarse instead of Después de haberse secado?

Yes. Después de secarse, la ropa está lista is acceptable and common. The perfect infinitive haberse secado highlights completion a bit more explicitly, but in many everyday contexts both are fine.

Why use secarse and not secar?

Secar is transitive: to dry something (an agent acts).
Secarse is pronominal/intransitive: to get dry, to dry out (middle voice). Clothes typically secan/secarse without focusing on an agent, so secarse is natural. If you want to emphasize an agent, you’d use the transitive verb with a direct object: Hemos secado la ropa.

Is it wrong to say Después de haberla secado, la ropa está lista?

It’s stylistically problematic. In non-finite clauses, the understood subject is normally the same as the main clause’s subject. In Después de haberla secado, la ropa…, the understood subject of haberla secado would be la ropa, which makes no sense (the clothes didn’t dry themselves as agents). Prefer:

Después de que la hayamos secado, la ropa estará lista.
Una vez seca, la ropa ya está lista.

Why is it secado and not seco?

Spanish has a double participle here:

secado: regular participle, used with haber (he/has/ha/haber) → haberse secado
seco/seca: irregular adjectival form, used as an adjective with estar → La ropa está seca So you need secado after haber, but seca as a predicate adjective.

Could I say La ropa está secada?

Generally no. For the resultant state, use the adjective: La ropa está seca. The participle secada is reserved for true passive constructions focusing on the action/agent: La ropa fue secada por la secadora. In everyday Spanish, that passive is rare here.

Is there any problem with the introductory clause and the comma?

No. It’s standard to place a comma after an initial adverbial phrase: Después de haberse secado, …. This improves readability.

Why is ropa singular in Spanish when clothes is plural in English?

La ropa is a collective singular noun in Spanish, so it takes singular agreement: la ropa está…. To talk about individual items, use prendas (de ropa) or the specific garments: las camisas, los pantalones, etc.

Do I need the article la? Could I say Ropa está lista?

As a normal declarative subject here, you’d use the article: La ropa está lista. Bare ropa works in other contexts (e.g., Hay ropa en la silla), but as the subject of a specific statement like this, la is natural.

What’s the difference between estar listo and ser listo?

estar listo/a = to be ready
ser listo/a = to be clever/smart So La ropa está lista means the clothes are ready, not that they’re clever.

Is ya idiomatic here? Should I add it?

Adding ya is very idiomatic in Spain to mark a change of state: Después de haberse secado, la ropa ya está lista = now it’s ready (it wasn’t before). It’s optional but common.

Can I use después de que with a finite verb instead of the infinitive?

Yes. Use después de que + subjunctive/indicative depending on time and certainty:

Future/unknown: Después de que se haya secado, la ropa estará lista.
Past/completed: Después de que se secó, la ropa estaba lista. In Spain, después de que is preferred over después que.

Are there concise alternatives common in Spain?

Yes:

Una vez seca, la ropa (ya) está lista.
Tras secarse, la ropa está lista.
Cuando se haya secado, la ropa estará lista.

Any Spain-specific vocabulary I could use?

For a load of laundry, Spaniards often say la colada. Example: Después de haberse secado, la colada ya está lista.

Why does está have an accent?

está (verb) carries a written accent to mark stress on the final syllable. esta (without accent) is the demonstrative adjective/pronoun (now usually written without an accent): esta camisa.