What's the difference between after and afterwards? [closed]
Solution 1:
What are you going to do afterwards?
What are you going to do after?
Both of these are fine. The first would be more common in formal written English. Both are common in spoken English. However, the two words afterwards and after are not interchangeable. The preposition afterwards is intransitive and doesn't take a complement.
- I’ll see you afterwards.
- *I’ll see you afterwards the concert. (wrong)
- *I’ll see you afterwards the concerts starts. (wrong)
- *I’ll see you afterwards of the concert. (wrong)
In the first example, we observe afterwards occurring with no complement. In the incorrect examples 2–6, we see it occurring with a noun phrase, a finite clause and a prepositional phrase respectively. Because afterwards cannot take a complement, these three examples are all badly formed.
Because afterwards is intransitive, many people will describe it as an adverb. We know, though, that it isn’t: most adverbs can be modified by the degree adverb very. Afterwards can not:
- It happened very slowly.
- *It happened very afterwards. (wrong)
Furthermore, prepositions can often be modified by the words straight and right. Adverbs cannot:
- *It happened right slowly. (wrong)
- *It happened straight slowly. (wrong)
- It happened right afterwards.
- It happened straight afterwards.
The first two examples here show the adverb slowly being modified by right and straight. The examples are badly formed. The last two examples, however, are fine. Together with the data further above, this demonstrates that afterwards is an intransitive preposition — meaning a preposition which doesn’t take a complement.
After, contrastingly, is a preposition which can take noun phrases and finite clauses as complements:
- I’ll see you after the concert.
- I’ll see you after the concert starts.
For some speakers, after can also be intransitive (take no complement):
- I’ll see you after.
The acceptability of this seems to be increased when the preposition is being modified:
- I’ll see you straight after.
Some speakers prefer afterwards for intransitive uses. There is no doubt though that many speakers readily also use after without a complement.
In answer to the question then, when used in this way without a complement, both afterwards and after are correct — but some speakers may look more kindly upon the first sentence.
Solution 2:
Afterwards is more commonly used as an adverb, but after can be used as one as well. From Cambridge Dictionaries Online:
We can use after as an adverb, but afterwards is more common. When after is used, it is usually as part of an adverb phrase:
They lived happily ever after. (means ‘for ever’)
She had an operation on her leg and afterwards was unable to walk for at least a month.
In your example afterwards would be a more common choice, but after is OK as well.