How to write :hover condition for a:before and a:after in CSS? Last Updated : 11 Jul, 2025 Comments Improve Suggest changes Like Article Like Report The :: before and :: after pseudo-elements in CSS insert content before or after elements. They are often used with the : hover pseudo-class to add interactive effects on hover. In CSS3, pseudo-elements use double colons (::), while older CSS2 syntax uses a single colon (:).Syntaxa:hover::before { // CSS Property}a:hover::after { // CSS Property}In CSS3 double colon(::) is used to denote pseudo-element. For IE8 or older a single colon (CSS2 syntax) is used. Example 1: Simple Hover Effects with ::before and ::afterIn this example, we will apply hover effects using ::before and ::after pseudo-elements. When the link is hovered, text will appear before and after the link text. html <html> <head> <style> a:hover::before { content: "Before -"; } a:hover::after { content: "-after"; } </style> </head> <body> <a href="#"> Hover here </a> </body> </html> Output::hover condition for a:before and a:after in CSSExample 2: Adding Animation to the ::before and ::after Pseudo-elementsIn this example, we will create a more sophisticated hover effect using ::before and ::after pseudo-elements. These pseudo-elements will add text before and after the link, and we will also apply animations to slide the elements in when the user hovers. html <html> <head> <style> body { font-family: Arial, sans-serif; padding: 50px; background-color: #f0f0f0; } a { text-decoration: none; font-size: 16px; color: black; position: relative; display: inline-block; padding: 10px 20px; background-color: white; border: 2px solid #ccc; border-radius: 8px; transition: background-color 0.3s ease; } a:hover { background-color: #e6ffe6; } a::before, a::after { position: absolute; top: 50%; transform: translateY(-50%); color: white; background-color: green; padding: 5px 10px; border-radius: 5px; opacity: 0; transition: opacity 0.3s ease, transform 0.3s ease; white-space: nowrap; z-index: 1; } a::before { content: "Before"; left: -70px; } a::after { content: "After"; right: -60px; } a:hover::before, a:hover::after { opacity: 1; transform: translateY(-50%) translateX(0); } </style> </head> <body> <a href="#">Hover me!</a> </body> </html> Output: :hover condition for a:before and a:after in CSSCSS is the foundation of webpages, is used for webpage development by styling websites and web apps.You can learn CSS from the ground up by following this CSS Tutorial and CSS Examples. Comment More infoAdvertise with us Next Article CSS Introduction A aman neekhara Follow Improve Article Tags : Web Technologies CSS CSS-Questions Similar Reads CSS Tutorial CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets. It is a stylesheet language used to style and enhance website presentation. CSS is one of the three main components of a webpage, along with HTML and JavaScript.HTML adds Structure to a web page.JavaScript adds logic to it and CSS makes it visually appealing or 7 min read CSS Introduction CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) is a language designed to simplify the process of making web pages presentable.It allows you to apply styles to HTML documents by prescribing colors, fonts, spacing, and positioning.The main advantages are the separation of content (in HTML) and styling (in CSS) and the 4 min read CSS Syntax CSS is written as a rule set, which consists of a selector and a declaration block. 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