Después de cenar, aplicaré otra capa de esmalte para que brille más.

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Breakdown of Después de cenar, aplicaré otra capa de esmalte para que brille más.

• de: of
• más: more
• después de: after

Questions & Answers about Después de cenar, aplicaré otra capa de esmalte para que brille más.

Why do we say Después de cenar instead of Después cenar?

In Spanish, when you want to say “after doing something,” you use después de + infinitive. The de is required. Omitting it (Después cenar) is ungrammatical.

Is cenar here a noun or a verb? It looks like “dinner.”

Here cenar is a verb in the infinitive form meaning “to have dinner.” In Spanish, verbs in infinitive can follow prepositions (like de) just like English gerunds (“after eating”).

Why use the simple future aplicaré instead of voy a aplicar?

Spanish has two main ways to talk about the future:

• Futuro simple (aplicaré): more formal, single-word form.
• Ir a + infinitive (voy a aplicar): more conversational and common in speech. Both are correct; the writer chose aplicaré for a slightly more formal tone.

Why isn’t there a subject pronoun like yo before aplicaré?

Spanish verbs carry person and number information in their endings. Aplicaré already tells you the subject is “I” (yo). Including yo is redundant unless you want to emphasize the subject.