Use of después

Question

To a prior question by another user, you responded: "If you are going to write "after something", you must say "después de + something". The first 6 words of the book "Cien años de soledad" are "Muchos años después, frente al pelotón,..." I gather that this means "Many years later",..." but later than what?? There is no "de" and no "something".

Thanks JT

Answer 1

Hi JayTeehere

I believe that the full sentence would be:

Muchos años después, frente al pelotón, de fusilamiento, el coronel Aureliano Buendía había de recordar aquella tarde remota en que su padre lo llevó a conocer el hielo.

In this case, it is not necessary to use "después de" because the author is using the phrase more along the lines of "afterwards/later."

In this case, I imagine that the purpose of beginning the book in this way was to give the effect of beginning the story en media res and that the "what" that you are referring to will likely soon be filled in by another common literary device known as the "flashback."

In fact the last part of the sentence kind of gives away the fact that a flashback is soon to follow:

...había de recordar aquella tarde remota en que su padre lo llevó a conocer el hielo.

The past event that is being referred to then is "aquella tarde en que su padre lo llevó a conocer el hielo." That is to say, the story begins "Muchos años Despues de aquella tarde remota en que..../Many years after that afternoon so long ago in which..."

Do you notice that when I reworded the passage and placed the "something" (that the word "after" was referring to) directly after the word "después" it required the use of "de"

Answer 2

Doesn't this reply require great tact. I don't want to give any offence.
I hope it was me who gave that previous answer because I'm about to contradict it.

 

Look at our dictionary definition here for the word ----> después. It shows many example uses of the word and a significant number of them are not followed by "de".

 

Muchos saludos/Best regards,

Moe