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Why does this sentence




Considering that the translation given is

After eating, please clean your room.

I thought with the given sentence it should be translated along the lines of "Since you have eaten - clean your room". With that "since" being derived from から.

Can someone please explain this nuance in both cases?

marked as duplicate by Chocolate, macraf, 永劫回帰, Dono, ssb Mar 21 '17 at 14:55



「te-form + から」(「連用形 + て + から」) means "After doing~~".
食べから → after eating

「end form/終止形 + から」(「dictionary form + から」「連用形 + た + から」 etc.) means "Since/Because (someone) do/did~~".
食べから → since/because (you) eat
食べから → since/because (you) ate

  • That makes sense! Sometimes it's hard learning on my own because I wasn't even aware that it is a separate grammar point... – NewProger Mar 21 '17 at 6:57

Further to Shoko's answer, I'd say that there's also a difference in meaning: in the sentence without から (ご飯を食べて部屋を掃除してください) the ください goes with both verbs, so the speaker is making two requests - (a) please eat your meal and (b) please clean the room, whereas in the sentence with から the ください.only applies to the second verb, so the speaker is only making one request - please clean your room. I'd translate the first as "Please eat your meal then clean the room" and the second as "When you've eaten your meal clean the room please".
