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I am aware that one can explain that to things happen at the same time using
_plain non past form_ \+ とき:

> 電車に乗るとき転びました。"I fell when I got on the train (I was going through the door
> when it happened)"

I am not quite sure about the following nuance, though : _plain past form_ \+
とき means the first action was over when the second happened :

> 電車に乗ったとき転びました。 "I fell when I got on the train (I was already inside the
> train when it happened)"

Would it _roughly_ mean the same thing as :

> 電車に乗った後転びました。"After I got on the train, I fell"

Eventually, would it be correct to express that I read a book before I went to
sleep using :

> 本を読んだとき寝ました。
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2013-02-09T12:34:34.170
11176
2013-02-09T15:37:47.040
2013-02-09T12:42:27.943
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question
grammar nuances
Expressing a sequence of actions using 〜たとき?
Yes, 電車に乗ったとき転んだ is roughly the same as 電車に乗った後転んだ. However, there is a slight
difference. The former implies that the action 転ぶ happened _right after_ the
action 電車に乗る: _I fell just after I got on a train._ 電車に乗った後転んだ does not have
this implication, and it just means: _I fell after I got on a train_.

本を読んだとき寝た sounds strange whereas 本を読んだ後寝た sounds perfectly normal. I am not
sure why, but I suspect that if an action V takes time, it is unnatural to use
Vしたとき and instead we use some other constructs such as Vしているとき, Vした後, and
Vし終わったとき depending on what we mean by it.
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2013-02-09T15:37:47.040
11178
2013-02-09T15:37:47.040
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answer