After clauses (после того как)

After Clauses

To express that an action happens after another event, use the conjunction phrase после того как.

The "after" clause can appear at the beginning or the end of the sentence. Regardless of the order, always separate the two clauses with a comma. When the "after" clause comes second, the comma goes right before после.

Conjugating with "После того как"

Unlike "before" clauses, you never use an infinitive with после того как. Whether the subjects are the same or different, the verb in the "after" clause is always conjugated. If the subject is the same, simply conjugate both verbs (you can often drop the pronoun in the second clause to sound more natural).

Clarifying Subjects with "Тот"

If a sentence has two different nouns in the first clause, using "he" or "she" in the second can be ambiguous. To specifically refer back to the object of the previous clause, Russian uses the pronoun тот (that one / the latter).

Here, тот makes it perfectly clear that the released person went home, not the court.

Finally, remember that you can use the impersonal "they" form (a plural verb without они) to indicate that an action was done to someone, such as being released from prison.