From this page, I see this sentence:

Note: Be careful of the tense of the verb that comes before 「前」 and 「後」. 「前」 is non-past while 「後」 is always past tense.

I am confused because it is quite weird to disallow the usage of non-past tense before 後. What if I'm talking about the things that I will do tomorrow? For example, which should I use if I want to say "I will go to school after I have breakfast tomorrow"?




This た doesn't mean "past" but "completion". It isn't unnatural that た which means "completion" is used in things in the future.

So 明日は、朝ご飯を食べた後、学校に行く is correct.

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  • 1
    Oh I see! I thought Japanese had completely changed from using aspects to using tenses! Apparently some parts of it still have the concept of "aspects"! :) – Sweeper Nov 2 '16 at 17:14
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    @Sweeper When I took Japanese in college just a few years ago, we were taught that Japanese uses aspect more than tense, so it seems in general Japanese is still more on the aspect side of things. – JAB Nov 2 '16 at 21:20

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