Learn Hardcore Spanish (Spain): Después del ensayo, algunas cantantes se quedan en el coro para susurrar chistes y reírse. - After rehearsal, some singers stay in the choir to whisper jokes and laugh.

You normally need the article with a singular countable noun like ensayo in this kind of phrase. Saying después de ensayo (without article) sounds incomplete or foreign in Spanish in this context.

So:

❌ después de el ensayo (grammatical error: no contraction)
✅ después del ensayo (correct)

Can ensayo mean both rehearsal and essay?

Yes, ensayo has two common meanings:

Rehearsal / practice (for music, theatre, etc.)
- In this sentence, that’s clearly the meaning (because of cantantes, coro, chistes, etc.).
Essay (a short non-fiction text)
- For example: He escrito un ensayo sobre la música coral.

The context tells you which meaning is intended. With singers and a choir, Spanish speakers will immediately understand ensayo as rehearsal.

Why is it algunas cantantes and not algunos cantantes or unas cantantes?

The noun cantante has the same form for masculine and feminine. You know the gender from the article or adjective:

el cantante = male singer
la cantante = female singer
los cantantes = group (often mixed or masculine)
las cantantes = group of women

In the sentence, we have:

algunas cantantes
- algunas is feminine plural
- so it tells you we are talking about some female singers.

You could say algunos cantantes if you meant male or mixed-gender singers.

Why not unas cantantes?

unas also means some, but:
- algunas often implies a subset of a known group (e.g., some of the singers, not all).
- unas cantantes can sound more like an indefinite group of singers, not necessarily from a specific known group.
Here, algunas cantantes fits well: some of the (female) singers from that choir.

Why is se quedan used instead of just quedan?

Spanish distinguishes between:

quedar (non-reflexive)
quedarse (reflexive / pronominal)

They have different main meanings:

quedarse = to stay / remain
- Después del ensayo, algunas cantantes se quedan…
  → After the rehearsal, some singers stay/remain…
quedar without se has several other meanings:
- Quedamos a las ocho. = We arrange/agree to meet at eight.
- Me quedan dos entradas. = I have two tickets left.
- Te queda bien ese vestido. = That dress suits you / fits you well.

So to say they stay, Spanish needs se quedan, not just quedan.

What exactly does en el coro mean here?

Coro normally means choir (the group of singers). It can also mean:

the choir area in a church (choir stalls, choir loft, etc.), depending on context.

In this sentence, en el coro is slightly ambiguous but both natural readings point to the same situation:

They stay with the choir, i.e., in the place where the choir rehearses.
They stay in the choir area/space, after the rehearsal has finished.

In everyday speech, most people would understand it as they stay in the rehearsal space where the choir is / was.

Why is para used before susurrar instead of a, like para susurrar chistes and not a susurrar chistes?

Para + infinitive expresses purpose:

se quedan … para susurrar chistes y reírse
→ they stay in order to whisper jokes and laugh.

This is the standard way to express why they stay (their goal).

A + infinitive is used after certain verbs (e.g., ir a, empezar a, ponerse a) to express the start of an action, not usually bare purpose:

Empiezan a susurrar chistes. = They start whispering jokes.
Van a susurrar chistes. = They are going to whisper jokes.

So with quedarse, to express purpose, you normally use para + infinitive, not a + infinitive.

Why are susurrar and reírse in the infinitive form?

After para, Spanish uses the infinitive to express purpose:

para + infinitive = in order to + verb

So:

para susurrar chistes = in order to whisper jokes
y reírse = and (in order to) laugh

The subject of these infinitives is the same as for se quedan (algunas cantantes), but Spanish does not repeat the subject; it stays understood.

What is the nuance of susurrar chistes instead of contar chistes?

Basic meanings:

contar chistes = tell jokes (neutral)
susurrar chistes = whisper jokes

By using susurrar, the sentence adds:

that they are speaking quietly, in a low voice,
often suggesting secrecy, intimacy, or that they shouldn’t really be making noise (e.g., still in the choir area).

So susurrar chistes paints a more vivid picture than just contar chistes.

Why is it chistes and not bromas?

Spanish distinguishes:

un chiste = a joke you tell (a story, a one-liner, a pun).
- contar un chiste, susurrar chistes
una broma = a prank / a joke / teasing, more general, often an action or behavior.
- hacer una broma, gastar una broma

In this sentence, they are whispering jokes to each other, i.e., verbal jokes, not necessarily playing pranks. So chistes is the natural word.

What is the difference between reír and reírse? Why use reírse here?

Both reír and reírse mean to laugh, and in many contexts they are interchangeable. In practice:

reírse is more common in everyday speech.
reír alone is a bit more formal or is used in set expressions.

Examples:

Me río mucho con ellas. / Río mucho con ellas. = I laugh a lot with them.
Reír es sano. = Laughing is healthy. (non-reflexive is more common in this impersonal, general statement)

In this sentence, reírse sounds completely natural and colloquial:

para susurrar chistes y reírse
→ to whisper jokes and laugh.

If you used reír instead (…y reír), it would still be correct, just a bit less colloquial in some ears.

Why is there no subject pronoun like ellas before se quedan?

Spanish is a pro-drop language: it normally omits subject pronouns when the subject is clear from the verb ending or the context.

se quedan already tells us:
- 3rd person plural (they stay).
algunas cantantes right before it makes the subject completely clear.

You would add ellas only for emphasis or contrast:

Después del ensayo, ellas se quedan en el coro…
(maybe to contrast them with others who leave)

In neutral sentences like this, leaving ellas out is the most natural choice.

Can Después del ensayo go at the end of the sentence instead? Does the meaning change?

Yes, you can move the time phrase, and the basic meaning stays the same:

Después del ensayo, algunas cantantes se quedan en el coro para susurrar chistes y reírse.
Algunas cantantes se quedan en el coro para susurrar chistes y reírse después del ensayo.

Both are correct and mean the same.

Differences in feel:

At the beginning, Después del ensayo sets the time frame as the starting point of the sentence, giving it a bit more emphasis.
At the end, it sounds slightly more casual, like extra information added after describing what they do.

Grammatically, both word orders are normal in Spanish.