Learn Spanish (Latin America): Después de la clase, fuimos al parque.

When you want to say after a specific event, you must use después de before the noun. If you just want to say afterwards or later without mentioning the specific event, you use después by itself. For example, you could say Fuimos al parque después to mean We went to the park afterwards.

Why does it say la clase when in English we just say after class?

In Spanish, nouns often require a definite article (like el or la) when referring to institutions, routines, or specific events, especially after prepositions. So, while English drops the article for routines like class or school, Spanish keeps it: después de la clase.

Which verb is fuimos and what tense is it?

Fuimos is the we form of the verb ir (to go) in the preterite tense, which is used for completed past actions. It is highly irregular, which is why it looks nothing like its infinitive form. Interestingly, it is the exact same word as the past tense we form of ser (to be), but the context here tells us it means we went.

I see al parque. Is al a mandatory contraction?