Breakdown of No hables en cuanto suba el telón.
no
no / not
hablar
to speak
subir
to get on / to go up / to turn up (raise the level) / to pull up, to zip up
en cuanto
as soon as (two words)
el telón
the theatre curtain
Questions & Answers about No hables en cuanto suba el telón.
Why is suba in the subjunctive instead of the normal present tense?
Because it follows the phrase en cuanto (as soon as) and refers to an event that hasn't happened yet. In Spanish, when you use time phrases to talk about a future, pending action (like the curtain going up), you must use the present subjunctive.
Could I use tan pronto como instead of en cuanto here?
Why is the verb suba placed before the subject el telón?
In Spanish, it's very common to put the subject after the verb following time conjunctions like en cuanto or cuando. This is especially true for verbs describing a movement or something appearing. Saying en cuanto el telón suba is grammatically correct, but en cuanto suba el telón sounds much more natural to a native speaker.
Why is the command translated as No hables instead of No hablas?
To tell someone not to do something (a negative command), Spanish requires you to use the present subjunctive form of the verb. Since this is an informal command directed at tú (you), we use hables. No hablas is just a statement meaning "you are not speaking".
Does telón refer to any kind of curtain?
No, telón specifically refers to a large, heavy curtain, usually the one on a theatre stage. If you are talking about the normal curtains you hang by the windows in a house, the word you need is cortinas.
Learn No hables en cuanto suba el telón and more in Spanish
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free