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Conjunction
| Some state or action takes place at a time (not always immediately) after another state or action has taken place. | After |
| 【Related Expression: たら; てから】 | |
| 【Antonym Expression: 前に】 | |
(ksa). メイソンさんは日本へ行ったあとで病気になった・なりました。
Mr. Mason became ill after he went to Japan.
(ksb). 私は授業のあとで図書館に行った・行きました。
After the class I went to the library.
| Vinformal past | あとで | |
| 話したあとで | After someone has talked/had talked | |
| 食べたあとで | After someone has eaten/had eaten | |
| Noun | のあとで | |
| 勉強のあとで | After study |
(a). ご飯を食べたあと(で)すぐ勉強しました。
I studied right after I had eaten my meal.
(b). 山田さんはビールを飲んだあと(で)寝てしまった。
Mr. Yamada fell asleep after he drank beer.
(c). 戦争が終わったあと(で)東京に戻りました。
I went back to tokyo after the war ended.
(d). 食事のあとでテニスをした。
I played tennis after my meal.
The particle で may be omitted in informal speech.
【Related Expressions】
Vinformal past あとで is crucially different from Verbてから in two respects: Verbてから is very awkward if the main clause expresses something beyond the control of the subject or the speaker of the sentence. Verb informal past あとで is free from such restriction.
[1]
Secondly, Verbてから indicates 'the space of time following after', but Verb informal past あとで indicates 'any space of time after'. Thus,
[2]
(⇨ から2)
II. Verb informal past あとで can be replaced by Verb informal pastら when the latter is used with a purely temporal meaning (i.e. 'after', 'when'). Thus, Example (a), (b) and (c) can be rephrased as [3a], [3b] and [3c], respectively.
[3]
However, if Verb informal pastら has a non-temporal meaning(i.e., 'if'), it cannot be replaced by Verb informal past あとで, as illustrated by [4].
[4]
(⇨ たら)