CSS pause-before

The CSS pause-before property is used in speech media to specify prosodic boundary (a pause) before an element.

The pause-before property can help your listeners comprehend the content by allowing you to provide extra "space" before certain elements. For example, adding a slight pause before a main heading could help distinguish the heading from the previous content while also communicating the significance of the heading.

The pause-before property can be seen as the speech media equivalent to the margin-top property in visual media.

Also see pause and pause-after.

Syntax

Possible Values

time
Expresses the pause in absolute time units (for example 50ms). Only non-negative values are allowed.
none
Equivalent to 0ms (no prosodic break is produced by the speech processor).
x-weak, weak, medium, strong, and x-strong
These values express the pause by the strength of the prosodic break in speech output. The exact time will depend on the output device/user agent being used.

In addition, all CSS properties also accept the following CSS-wide keyword values as the sole component of their property value:

initial
Represents the value specified as the property's initial value.
inherit
Represents the computed value of the property on the element's parent.
unset
This value acts as either inherit or initial, depending on whether the property is inherited or not. In other words, it sets all properties to their parent value if they are inheritable or to their initial value if not inheritable.

General Information

Initial Value
none
Applies To
All elements.
Inherited?
No
Media
Speech

Example Code

Official Specifications