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Después de que llegó tu padre, cenamos.

Después de que llegó tu padre, cenamos.
After your father arrived, we had dinner.
From Lesson 301:More time clauses (después de que, al llegar, hasta que llegó)·Spanish (Spain)

Questions & Answers about Después de que llegó tu padre, cenamos.

Why is llegó in the indicative mood instead of the subjunctive?
Phrases like después de que take the indicative when they refer to a completed action in the past. Because the father's arrival already happened, we use the past tense llegó. If we were talking about a future arrival, we would need the subjunctive.
Why does the verb come before the subject in llegó tu padre?
In Spanish, it is very common to put the subject after the verb, especially in dependent clauses (the part after que) and with verbs that describe arriving or appearing. Saying tu padre llegó is also perfectly correct, but llegó tu padre sounds very natural.
Could I drop the que and just use the infinitive llegar?
You generally only use después de followed by an infinitive like llegar if the subject is the same for both actions. Since the father is arriving but the rest of the group is having dinner, there is a change of subject. This means you need to use después de que followed by a conjugated verb.
Why are both verbs in the preterite tense?
Both llegó and cenamos are in the preterite because they represent a sequence of completed events. The preterite is used to advance the plot in the past: first the father arrived, and then the dinner happened.

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