Durante la reunión, habrá una pausa breve.

During the meeting, there will be a short break.

Breakdown of Durante la reunión, habrá una pausa breve.

• una: a
• durante: during
• la reunión: the meeting
• .: period
• ,: comma
• breve: brief
• haber: there will be
• la pausa: the break

Questions & Answers about Durante la reunión, habrá una pausa breve.

What does durante mean here, and how is it different from mientras?

Durante is a preposition meaning “during” or “for (a period of time)”. It is followed by a noun:

• Durante la reunión = During the meeting
• Durante el verano = During the summer

Mientras is a conjunction meaning “while” and is followed by a clause with a verb:

• Mientras hablamos, toma notas. = While we talk, take notes.

So:

• Durante la reunión, habrá una pausa breve. ✅ (During the meeting, there will be a short break.)
• Mientras tenemos la reunión, habrá una pausa breve. ✅ (While we have the meeting, there will be a short break.)

You cannot swap them directly:

• ❌ Mientras la reunión, habrá una pausa breve.
• ❌ Durante tenemos la reunión, habrá una pausa breve.

Why is it la reunión and not el reunión?

Because reunión is a feminine noun in Spanish, so it takes the feminine article la.

• la reunión = the meeting
• las reuniones = the meetings

There’s no rule you can infer just from the ending -ión, but many nouns ending in -ción / -sión / -ión are feminine (e.g. la información, la decisión, la televisión, la reunión).

So you must say:

• Durante la reunión… ✅
• ❌ Durante el reunión…

Does reunión mean the same as English “reunion”?

Usually, no. This is a classic false friend.

• la reunión most often means “a meeting” (work meeting, team meeting, etc.).
• English “reunion” (e.g. family reunion, school reunion) would normally be reencuentro, reunión familiar, reunión de antiguos alumnos, etc., depending on the context.

So in a work context:

• Tenemos una reunión a las 10. = We have a meeting at 10.

Learners often mistakenly think it always means reunion, but in daily Spanish from Spain it’s much more commonly meeting.

How do you pronounce reunión, and where is the stress?

Pronunciation in IPA: [reuˈnjon]

Key points:

• It has three syllables: reu‑nión
• The stress is on the last syllable: ‑nión
• The accent mark (´) on ó tells you the stress is there: reu‑NIÓN
• The “eu” is pronounced as two separate vowel sounds, like “reh‑oo” merged quickly: re‑u

Very roughly in English-like syllables: “reh-oo-NEE-ON” (said quickly), with the strongest emphasis on NEE‑ON as a single beat.

What exactly is habrá grammatically, and what does it mean here?

Habrá is:

• The simple future tense of the verb haber
• 3rd person singular: he/she/it will have in other uses
• But here, haber is used as an impersonal “existential” verb meaning “there is / there are”

So:

• hay = there is / there are (present)
• habrá = there will be (future)

In the sentence:

• habrá una pausa breve = there will be a short break

It does not mean anyone “will have” something; it simply states that such a thing will exist/occur.

What’s the difference between hay, habrá, hubo, and había?

All are impersonal forms of haber used to say “there is / there are / there was / there will be.”

• hay – present

  • Hay una pausa. = There is a break.
  • Hay dos pausas. = There are two breaks.

• habrá – simple future

  • Habrá una pausa. = There will be a break.

• hubo – preterite, a finished event in the past

  • Hubo una pausa. = There was a break (at one specific moment, completed).

• había – imperfect, background or ongoing past

  • Había una pausa cada hora. = There used to be a break every hour / There was a break every hour (habitually).

Notice something important:

• With haber in this sense, Spanish always uses the 3rd person singular form, even for plurals:
  • Hay dos pausas. (not hayan)
  • Habrá muchas pausas. (not habrán in standard usage for this meaning)

Could we use va a haber instead of habrá here?

Yes. Va a haber is also very common and sounds natural in Spain.

• Durante la reunión, habrá una pausa breve.
• Durante la reunión, va a haber una pausa breve.

Both mean “During the meeting, there will be a short break.”

Nuance:

• habrá – slightly more formal or neutral, typical of announcements, written schedules, notices.
• va a haber – slightly more conversational / informal, like “there’s going to be”.

But in everyday speech and writing, both are fine.

Why can’t we say “estará una pausa breve” instead of “habrá una pausa breve”?

Because in Spanish, when we want to say “there will be (exist)”, we normally use haber, not estar.

• Habrá una pausa breve. = There will be a short break. ✅

If you say:

• ❌ Estará una pausa breve.

it sounds wrong, because estar is not used as the general “existential there is/are” verb.

You can use estar if you are talking about where something is located, not about its mere existence:

• La pausa estará al final de la reunión. = The break will be at the end of the meeting. (location in time)

Why is it una pausa and not just pausa breve, without the article?

In Spanish, singular countable nouns almost always need an article or a determiner, unlike in English.

English allows:

• During the meeting, there will be *a short break.*
• During the meeting, there will be *short breaks.*
• During the meeting, there will be *no break.*

In Spanish, you normally can’t leave a singular countable noun bare in this way. You say:

• Habrá una pausa breve. ✅
• ❌ Habrá pausa breve. (sounds incomplete/unnatural in normal speech)

Una here is the indefinite article (“a / one”) because you are introducing one non-specific break, not a particular one already known to both speaker and listener.

Why is the adjective after the noun (pausa breve) and not before (breve pausa)?

In Spanish, the default position for most adjectives is after the noun:

• una pausa breve = a short break

However, many adjectives can also go before the noun, sometimes with a slight change in nuance:

• una breve pausa is also correct.

Nuance (subtle and context-dependent):

• una pausa breve – more neutral, descriptive: the break happens to be short.
• una breve pausa – can sound a bit more stylistic / slightly more “literary” or emphatic.

In real-life usage, both are very common and usually interchangeable. As a safe rule while learning, put most adjectives after the noun:

• un libro interesante
• una reunión larga
• una pausa breve

What is the difference between pausa and descanso in Spain?

Both relate to a break, but they’re used slightly differently:

• pausa

  • More general, often used for a short interruption in an activity.
  • Common in formal or semi-formal contexts: meetings, talks, classes.
  • Hacemos una pausa de cinco minutos. = We’re having a five-minute pause.

• descanso

  • Emphasises rest more.
  • Common in work or school contexts (a rest break, coffee break, etc.).
  • Tenemos un descanso a las 11. = We have a break at 11.

In your sentence, both are possible:

• Habrá una pausa breve. ✅
• Habrá un descanso breve. ✅

In a meeting context, pausa may sound slightly more “neutral” or “procedural” (like a scheduled pause), while descanso may sound a bit more like time to rest/relax.

Is the comma after “Durante la reunión,” necessary in Spanish?

It’s not absolutely required, but it is very common and stylistically recommended.

When you start a sentence with a longer adverbial phrase like Durante la reunión, Spanish often uses a comma, similar to English:

• Durante la reunión, habrá una pausa breve. ✅

You could technically write:

• Durante la reunión habrá una pausa breve. ✅

and it would still be correct, especially in more informal writing. The comma just makes the sentence easier to read and shows a natural pause in speech.

Can we move “durante la reunión” to the end of the sentence?

Yes, Spanish word order is flexible here. All of these are correct and natural, with slightly different emphasis:

1. Durante la reunión, habrá una pausa breve.

   • Neutral; sets the time frame first.

2. Habrá una pausa breve durante la reunión.

   • Emphasises “there will be a short break”, and then adds when.

3. Habrá, durante la reunión, una pausa breve.

   • Grammatically correct but more formal/literary; not typical in everyday speech.

For everyday use, 1 and 2 are the most natural.