LEARN KOREAN (한국어) [GRAMMAR] #1

AFTER/LATER (후)

The word '후' translates to 'after' or 'later/from now' depending on how it is used in Korean sentences. When placed after any indication of time (2 seconds, 5 minutes, 10 hours, 4 days, 3 weeks, 2 years, etc...) it has the meaning of "later/from now:" For example:

2 초 후에 - 2 seconds later/from now
5 분 후에 - 5 minutes later/from now
열 시간 후에 - 10 hours later/from now*
4 일 후에 - 4 days later/from now
3 주 후에 - 3 weeks later/from now
2 년 후에 - 2 years later/from now

*I typically write the word instead of the numeral when referring to an hour.

You can use these sentences intuitively just like sentences with "전." For example:

두 시간 후에 갈 거예요 - I will go 2 hours from now
수업은 2분 후에 끝날 거예요 - Class will finish 2 minutes from now

When '후' is placed after a verb, it has the meaning of "after." You learned that you must add ~기 to the stem of a verb to make "~기 전에." When using "후" after a verb, you do not add ~기 to the stem of the word. Instead, you must add ~ㄴ/은 to the stem of the verb. ~은 gets added to a stem where the final syllable ends in a consonant. ~ㄴ gets added directly to stems ending in a vowel. For example:

내가 먹은 후에 - After I eat
내가 간 후에 - After I go

These can now go into sentences like "~기 전에"

숙제가 끝난 후에 나는 집에 갈 거예요 - After my homework is finished, I will go home
밥을 먹은 후에 친구를 만났어요 - After I ate I met a friend
과자를 많이 먹은 후에 배가 아팠어요 - After eating a lot of candy/snacks, my stomach was sore

It is also possible to substitute the word 다음 for 후 to create the same meaning. For example:

숙제가 끝난 다음에 나는 집에 갈 거예요 - After my homework is finished, I will go home
밥을 먹은 다음에 친구를 만났어요 - After I ate I met a friend
과자를 많이 먹은 다음에 배가 아팠어요 - After eating a lot of candy/snacks, my stomach was sore

You can see in the vocabulary list that there are also these words:

직전 - just before
직후 - right after

These two can be used just like 전 and 후 respectively – the difference being that the addition of "직" emphasizes that something was done immediately before or after the action or indication of time. For example:

아들이 저녁 먹기 직전에 과자를 먹었어요 - Right before having dinner, he (the son) ate candy/snacks
경찰관이 오기 직전에 그 사람이 갔어요 - That person left right before the police came

양복을 입은 직후에 밖에 나갔어요 - Right after I put on the suit, I went outside
전화번호를 받은 직후에 잃어버렸어요 - Right after I got his phone number, I lost it

One quick thing. In a lot of the example sentences above, I placed the ~기 전에 or ~ㄴ/은 후에 clauses before the main clause of the sentence. It is important to recognize something here – what we are essentially doing is creating a unit that gives us an indication of time. For example:

친구가 오기 전에 저는 은행에 갔어요 - Before my friend came, I went to the bank

"친구가 오기 전에" can just be seen as one unit that can be placed elsewhere in a sentence, just like other adverbs that give us an indication of time. For example:

저는 (at some time) 은행에 갔어요 - I went to the bank (at some time)
저는 (어제) 은행에 갔어요 - I went to the bank (yesterday)
저는 (친구가 오기 전에) 은행에 갔어요 - I went to the bank (before my friend came)

Therefore, although I often place this indication of time before the clause, it doesn't always need to be there, and it is the discretion of the speaker that will decide exactly where to place it. Being able to create a single unit from a clause like this is a quick introduction to what you will begin learning in later lesson – where you will be able to manipulate entire clauses to describe nouns in the middle of sentences.