Difference between atrás and detrás?

Question

I've not found a clear answer in this forum or in grammar books as to when to use atrás/atrás de or detrás/detrás de. Most of the examples look to me like they could be interchangeable. Do I just have to memorize that when I say a certain phrase it has to be used with whatever one of the words is used in the translation?

Answer 1

Hi, Ann! Welcome to the forum.

Here's a great explanation on Spanish.about.com.

I found this post.

Maybe it helps a bit?

Thanks so much! Going to Spanish about.com was very useful as well as the other posts you mentioned. I think I'll still be a bit confused for awhile but this certainly made it clearer and much easier to decide which one to use. - AnnB, May 25, 2012