62843
When first studying Japanese, I learned that "after" in Japanese is 後で. But
asking around and looking at regular usage, a lot of Japanese will tell me a
sentence like the following is slightly unnatural:

> 映画を見た後で家に帰ってきました。

I actually tried making a few sentences with 後で and I kept getting corrected
to either drop the で or use 後に. So, is 後で being used less these days? I see
plenty of examples being used in the Tanaka Corpus, but that's a bit old.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-11-14T15:15:05.657
62841
2018-11-15T03:40:32.140
2018-11-15T02:19:11.800
7810
6604
question
nuances conjunctions
Is the use of 後で fading from usage in Japanese?
There are several things to consider in answering your question.

An **objective** answer to your question would require a direct comparison
between the total usage of `後で` at two different points in time. This is not a
trivial task and it requires more specific information, i.e. exactly which two
time points to compare, what corpora you will base your conclusions on,
whether you want to include `Nounの後で` or other variants as well, etc. You
could then see if there is a pattern of attrition and perhaps even investigate
the reasons.

If you are just looking for a **subjective** answer, then it is reasonable to
ask native speakers but I think you would also have to use example sentences
generated by native speakers. For example you could take 20 sentences
containing `後で` from a corpus and show them to Japanese people to ask whether
they feel something is unnatural in the sentence. The reason I believe it is
important to avoid non-native speaker examples is that they often have errors
which can make the sentence sound unnatural for a variety of reasons that
might not be immediately apparent, even to native speaker.

Take your sample sentence, for example.

> 映画を見た後で家に帰ってきました。

According to the Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar, `後で` indicates "any
space of time after" whereas `～てから` indicates "the space of time following
after". It may well be the case that

> 映画を見てから家に帰ってきました。

would sound more natural to a native speaker precisely because of the
implication that the action of going home immediately followed the action of
watching the movie, and was not separated by "any space of time". So you could
argue that `後で` is not the appropriate term to use in this specific
circumstance because of the meaning of the sentence. You have to be careful
attributing a cause to an effect and so I think it is best to avoid sentences
made by non native speakers.

Finally, when something does end up becoming obsolete there is usually a
reason for it, and it's often the case that it is superseded by something
else. You might investigate which terms are more likely to be used instead of
`後で` as another way to explore your question.

So without directly answering your question, I hope that helped. :)
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-11-14T18:05:22.250
62843
2018-11-14T18:05:22.250
25875
62841
answer
This sentence sounds unnatural indeed. As you were instructed, either drop the
で or use 後に, that will make it more natural.

I am quite sure the sentence _has never sounded natural_ , actually. The
reason it sounds unnatural is not because the language is changing.

In particular, 後で is used all the time, you can't spend a day at school or
work without hearing it at least once.

It is just that you can't put this 後で inside this sentence. Consider this
English sentence:

> Afterwards watching the movie I came back home.

It sounds weird, not because "afterwards" is fading in usage, but just because
it is the wrong word here, you should use "after" instead.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-11-15T03:40:32.140
62846
2018-11-15T03:40:32.140
107
62841
answer