Learn Hardcore French: Le lendemain, nous allons au café après le boulot. - The next day, we go to the café after work.

demain = tomorrow, always relative to now (the moment of speaking).
- Demain, je travaille. = Tomorrow, I work / I’m working.
le lendemain = the next day, relative to another moment in time, often in a story or reported speech.
- Il est arrivé lundi. Le lendemain, il est reparti.
  He arrived on Monday. The next day, he left.

In your sentence, Le lendemain, nous allons au café… suggests you’re talking about “the next day” in a sequence of events, not simply “tomorrow” from right now.

Why do we need the article le in le lendemain? Can we just say lendemain?

You need the article:

le lendemain is a noun phrase meaning the next day (literally “the following day”).
Unlike demain, which is an adverb and stands alone, lendemain is treated as a noun and therefore normally takes an article: le lendemain.

You almost never use lendemain without an article, except in a few fixed expressions that still contain some determiner, like:

au lendemain de la guerre = in the aftermath of the war
le lendemain de Noël = the day after Christmas

So the natural form is always le lendemain, not just lendemain.

Why is the verb in the present tense (nous allons) if we’re talking about the next day?

French often uses the present tense to talk about the near or certain future, especially when the timing is clear from context:

Le lendemain, nous allons au café…
Literally: The next day, we go to the café…
Meaning: The next day, we’re going / we’ll go to the café…

This is called the present with future value. It’s common for schedules, plans, and narration.

You could also say:

Le lendemain, nous irons au café…

That uses the futur simple (nous irons), which sounds a bit more formal or more “neutrally future.” In everyday speech, the present (nous allons) is very natural when the time is clearly indicated by le lendemain.

Why is it au café and not à le café?

Because of a mandatory contraction rule in French:

à + le = au
à + les = aux

So:

à le café → au café
à les cafés → aux cafés

But:

à la boulangerie (no change with la)
à l’école (no change with l’)

So au café literally means to the café / at the café.

What’s the difference between au café and dans un café?

Both can be translated with “(to) a café,” but the nuance is slightly different:

au café
- Often “to the café / at the café” in a general, familiar sense.
- Suggests a particular café that the speakers have in mind, or “the café” as a regular place they go.
dans un café
- Literally “in a café.”
- Focuses more on being inside some café, not necessarily a specific one the listener already knows.
- Often used if the exact place is unimportant:
  - On s’est rencontrés dans un café. = We met in a café.

In your sentence, au café feels like: we go to the café (our usual cafe / that specific place).

Does café here mean the drink (coffee) or the place (a café)?

Here, café clearly means the place, not the drink:

aller au café = to go to the café (the establishment)
boire un café = to drink a coffee

Context and the verb aller (“to go”) tell you that café is a location in this sentence.

What does boulot mean, and how is it different from travail?

boulot is an informal word for work / job:

le boulot ≈ “work” / “the job” in everyday, colloquial speech.
le travail is the standard, neutral word for “work.”

Compare:

Je vais au boulot. = I’m going to work. (casual)
Je vais au travail. = I’m going to work. (neutral)

In your sentence, après le boulot sounds friendly and conversational. A more neutral version would be:

Le lendemain, nous allons au café après le travail.

Why do we say après le boulot and not just après boulot or après du boulot?

In French, the preposition après followed by a noun normally needs a determiner (article, possessive, etc.):

après le boulot
après le travail
après le dîner
après la réunion

So:

après boulot → sounds wrong/unnatural in standard French.
après du boulot → would mean “after some work” in a very odd, unidiomatic way here; you basically never say it that way in this context.

Correct patterns are:

après + noun with article:
- après le boulot, après la classe
or après + infinitive if you want “after doing X”:
- après avoir travaillé = after working
- après avoir fini le boulot = after finishing work

Why is there a comma after Le lendemain?

Le lendemain is a time expression placed at the beginning of the sentence to set the scene (“when” something happens). In French, when such an adverbial phrase is fronted, it’s very common to separate it with a comma:

Le matin, je bois un café.
Le week-end, nous sortons.
Le lendemain, nous allons au café…

The comma marks a little pause and makes the sentence clearer, but it’s more about style and readability than a strict rule of meaning.

Why does the sentence use nous allons instead of on va?

Both mean “we go / we are going”, but they differ in register:

nous allons
- Grammatically “correct” subject pronoun for we.
- More formal or written French, or careful speech.
on va
- Literally “one goes,” but in modern spoken French it very often means we go.
- More informal, extremely common in everyday conversation.

Spoken French version of your sentence would very typically be:

Le lendemain, on va au café après le boulot.

In written French (especially in exercises or formal writing), nous allons is preferred.