The difference in words

Question

I was looking up the word then in spanish I got" luego" and "entonces" If I wanted to say The man was being nasty and then asked me for my number would I use " luego" or "entonces "

Answer 1

For the most part, these words are interchangeable, but from what I know (and what I've read in Keenan's "Breaking out of Beginner's Spanish"), entonces implies a natural progression or a cause-effect relation while luego simply refers to a timeline of events or, in meaty-gritty terms, 'this happens after this'.

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BBS entry on Entonces:

Usually, entonces crops up in storytelling situations, as when you are relating what happened in chronological order. Entonces yo llamé a la policía....But you will also run across it in present-time situations where it translates more like 'so' or 'so then'. Entonces, ¿qué hacemos? = 'So what do we do?'.

BBS entry on Luego:

Luego generally tends to be reserved more for time constructions and often works better as 'later' than as 'then'. A subtle distinction: entonces implies "and then [as a result]," whereas luego is often simply "and then [in sequence]". Primero me voy a bañar, luego voy a la tienda y luego a tu casa.

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So I guess you should use 'luego' in this case, even though 'entonces' would also be understood.