あとで

あとで Japanese Grammar Lesson

Grammar Type: Conjunction

Essential Meaning: After X

Construction: 

• Verb informal past + あとで
  • E.g. 話はなしたあとで [After X spoke]
  • E.g. 食たべたあとで [After X ate]

• Noun + の + あとで
  • E.g. コンサートのあとで [After the concert]

Notes:

• あとで (後あとで in kanji) is a conjunction that simply expresses that one action takes place after another action has taken place (i.e. “After X occurs, Y occurs“). あとで does not necessarily imply that one event immediately follows the other. It simply implies that one event precedes the other temporally.

• In casual speech, で may drop after あと.
  • E.g. ご飯はんを食たべたあとすぐ勉強べんきょうした。[Immediately after I ate, I studied.]

• Be careful not to confuse あとで with てから. The key differences are:
  • (1) てから implies the span of time immediately following some action, while あとで implies any span of time following some action (i.e. it doesn’t imply immediacy).
    • E.g. 日本にほんへ来きてから何年なんねんになりますか。[How many years have passed since you came to Japan?]. In this case, the relevant time span is the period beginning immediately after the hearer’s arrival in Japan. Thus, てから is appropriate and あとで is not.
  • (2) With てから, the main predicate generally expresses an action under the subject’s immediate control. あとで does not have such a restriction.
    • E.g. 私わたしがうちへ帰かえったあとで雨あめが降ふった。[After I got home, it rained.]. In this case, てから would be unacceptable because the rain is not under the subject’s control.

• あとで can be interchanged with ~たら when ~たら conveys a purely temporal meaning.
  • E.g. ご飯はんを食たべたらすぐ勉強べんきょうしました。[Immediately after I ate, I studied.]
  • E.g. *日本にほんへ行いったらどうですか。[How would you like to go to Japan?] In this case, ~たら is used with the idiomatic expression ~たらどうですか rather than in a purely temporal sense. So in this case, ~たら and あとで are not interchangeable.

Example Sentences:

メイソンさんへ日本にほんへ行いったあとで病気びょうきになった。[After Mason came to Japan, he got sick.]

私わたしは従業じゅうぎょうの後あとで図書館としょかんに行いった。[After class, I went to the library.]

WILD Examples:

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