Japanese grammar practice for "after verbing"

Japanese Grammar Plug and Play - Three Ways of Saying,
"After Verb-ing" in Japanese.

There are three ways to form sentences that you can use when you want to say, "after verb-ing" in Japanese.

Here are the constructs:

I. Verb (base TE) + KARA
II. Verb (base TA) + ATO DE
III. Verb (base TA) + NOCHI NI

By themselves KARA, ATO DE, NOCHI NI all mean, after. All are similar to each other and are the equivalent for expressions relating to the English terms following or later, thereafter etc...

The first way to say that you will do something after doing something else in Japanese, is by using the kara bunpo (grammar):

I. Verb (Base TE ) + KARA = after verb-ing

Take verbs and put them into base TE-て.

Verbs ending in KU くbecome ITE いて.
Verbs ending in GU ぐbecome IDE いで.
Verbs ending in Uう, TSUつ, or RUる become TTEって
Verbs ending in BUぶ, MUむ, or NUぬ become NDEんで.

The verb suruするor verbs ending in SUす become SHITE して
After putting verbs into base TE, add + KARA (after) to complete the construction

1. HANASU 話す(v. to speak)

In Base TE-て the Japanese verb HANASU話す = HANASHITE話して
HANASHITE + KARA 話してから = after speaking , or after talking

CHOTTO HANASHITE KARA IKIMASHO^ ちょっと話してから往きましょう
Let's go after we talk a little.

2. YOMU読む (v. to read) -

In Base TE-て the Japanese verb YOMU読むbecomes - YONDE読んで
YONDE KARA 読んでから= after reading

HON O YONDE KARA NERU TO OMOIMASU. 本を読んでから寝ると思います.
I think I'll sleep after reading a book.

3. TABERU 食べる (v. to eat)

TABERU 食べるin Base TE-て becomes – TABETE 食べて
TABETE KARA食べてから= after eating
TABETE KARA SHUKUDAI O SURU. 食べてから宿題をする
After I eat, I'm going to do homework.

4. UNDO^ SURU 運動する(v. to exercise)

SURU するin Base TE-て becomes - SHITEして
SHITE KARA してから= after exercising

UNDO^ SHITE KARA SHAWA WO ABIRU. 運動をしてから
I’ll take a shower after doing my exercise.

II. Verb (base TA) + ATO DE - after verb'ing

The second way to say "after verb-ing" in Japanese is by using the following construct.

Verb (base TA) + ATO DE - after verb'ing

Take verbs and put them into base TA. (Base TA is the past tense form of Japanese verbs.)



For verbs ending in BU (ぶ), MU (む) or NU (ぬ),
The TA た form = NDA んだ
1. NOMU飲む (v. to drink)
NOMU 飲む in base TA -た is NONDA 飲んだ (past tense of drink or drank)
NONDA ATO DE飲んだ後で = after drinking

SAKE O NONDA ATO DE NEMUKUNATTA 酒を飲んだ後で眠くなった
I got sleepy after drinking sake.


III. verb ( base TA) + NOCHI NI - after verb'ing

The third way of saying "after verb-ing" in Japanese, is to substitute the word+particle NOCHI NI のちに or 後に, , for ATO DE あとでor 後で. ATO 後 and NOCHI 後 actually use the same kanji as you can see. This being the case you can use them interchangeably and the meanings will stay the same. As a general rule, you can use NOCHI with NI (different particle) any time you would use ATO DE.

NOCHI NI and ATO DE are interchangeable thus: NOCHI NI = ATO DE

Verb (base TA) + NOCHI NI - after verb'ing

1. SAKE O NONDA NOCHI NI IE NI KAETTA 酒を飲んだ後に家に帰えた
I went home after drinking some sake.

2. SAKE O NONDA NOCHI NI INU O SAMPO SHI NI ITTA 酒を飲んだ後に犬を散歩しに行った
After I drank some sake, I took the dog for a walk.

As you can see from these examples, there are two sides to every sentence. On one side is verb 1 that comes before transforming it into its TE or TA base, and verb 2 which occurs after KARA, ATO DE, NOCHI NI

- Verb 1 in base TE + KARA and Verb 2

- Verb 2 can be past, present, negative or positive, but Verb 1 must be in base TE.

I hope that you too can start-up some cool and interesting conversations using these Japanese plug and play grammar constructions. Test your creations out on your Japanese friends to see if they fly. If not revise and do it again. Plug and play is drill and kill for Japanese language learners of the 21st century. Good luck in all your Japanese learning endeavors.

As Always,
Ganbatte Ne! 頑張ってね
Do Your Best!
Makurasuki まくらすき.