Master confusing words with ease
After vs. Later
After
/ˈæftər/Examples:
I don't go out after 10 p.m.About two years after I saw the footprint.God had not, after all, decided to spare him.
Synonyms:
Antonyms:
Later
/ˈleɪtə/Examples:
His sunken leathered face appears a moment later.Maybe there's a later train.Several evenings later Marian again visited him, this time alone.
Synonyms:
Antonyms:
Ways to tell them apart:
- After is used in relation to events or actions that occur one following the other.
- Later is used when referring to a time that comes after the present or a specified time in the future.
- You often use after with conjunctions or prepositions, whereas later is typically used as an adverb.
- Think of after as a sequence (first this, then that), whereas later suggests something of a waiting period or delay.
- If youre talking about two actions, you would say the second happened after the first, but you might respond Ill do it later when delaying an action.
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