Palabra Lexi · common words in Spanish

How to say "sad" in Spanish

"Sad" in Spanish is triste, pronounced TREES-teh (stress on the syllable in capitals).

Pronunciation is spelled out in English, one syllable at a time, with the stressed syllable in capitals. The speaker button uses your browser's built-in Spanish voice.

How to pronounce triste

Triste is pronounced TREES-teh, in IPA /ˈtɾiste/. Triste has two syllables, TREES-teh, with the stress on the first. There is no written accent because the word follows the basic rule: words ending in a vowel, -n or -s are stressed on the second-to-last syllable.

Listen: normal and slow speed, in your browser's Spanish voice. IPA: Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.

Example sentences

Un final triste
A sad ending

Está triste por la noticia.
She's sad about the news.

Hoy estoy un poco triste.
Today I'm a bit sad.

"Sad" in Spain and Latin America

Regional words and roots: Diccionario de la lengua española (RAE). Spanish varies by region, so treat these as the most common patterns, not strict rules.

How to remember triste

triste [TREES-teh] sounds like the English “tryst”. Picture this:

A cancelled tryst: sad violin, wet bench, two cold coffees.

A sound-alike plus a vivid scene is the keyword method, a well-studied way to learn vocabulary. How it works.

Practice triste

Two quick games, right here: no sign-up, nothing is sent anywhere.

Word web: triste

Words that live next to triste in the Palabra word web, each with its own English sound-alike and scene. Learning them together makes each one easier to recall.