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What's the difference between に and で when speaking of the time of an action?
I know に is very specific about time, but I'm not sure when, or how to use で.
Can で only be used in certain instances?

Supposing we want to say "After eating breakfast, I will watch TV." What would
be the difference between these two:

> 朝ご飯を食べた後 **に** テレビを見る。(asagohan o tabeta ato **ni** terebi o miru)

vs.

> 朝ご飯を食べた後 **で** テレビを見る。(asagohan o tabeta ato **de** terebi o miru)

Thanks!
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word-choice particles particle-に particle-で に-and-で
What's the difference between に and で when speaking of time of an action?
I agree with Amanda, a great question. To summarise with regard to 'time':

**"後で"** means you are using the time you have later to do the action,
whereas...

**"後に"** implies you choose "later" from amongst other options (e.g. instead
of 'now', 'never' or even 'undefined') for performing the action (i.e.
eating).

I found the answer here on Chiebukuro
<http://detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/qa/question_detail/q1433341164>

There are 2 examples given on Chiekbukuro as representative of the
differences. They are「手で入れる」 and 「手に入れる」. With 「で」 it means you do the action
"with your hand", whereas 「に」 indicates your hand is where the action comes to
completion (the 帰着点 in Japanese).

So with regard to the question:

**「で」is used to indicate the time or space used to perform the action**

**「に」indicates the time/place inside which completion of the action occurs.**

**NB:** I have not covered the more common usage of に that does not relate to
the question (e.g. 電車に乗る). _I ♡ Chiekbukoro_
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There are some interesting connotations in the Chiebukuro examples crunchyt
kindly pointed to which I think are worth going over in more detail. First,
the ～でする and ～にする forms:

> この仕事はあと **で** します。 I'll do this job later.
>
> この仕事はあと **に** します。 I'll do this job later.

Now, the fact that these are both allowable and both have the same (English)
translation doesn't mean they're freely interchangeable. Rather, the first
simply means that you'll do the job sometime in the future. The second,
however, implies that you have the option of doing the job now, but you're
putting it off until later -- "you choose 'later' from amongst other options,"
as crunchyt put it. (Incidentally, the Japanese word for "postponement" is
後回し. Yet the opposite of "postponement" is not 前回し, but 前倒し. In Japanese,
things rotate backward and fall forward. :)

Now for verbs other than する, で is the typical choice to follow あと. From
Chiebukuro:

> ご飯はあと **で** 食べます。 I'll eat later.
>
> ご飯はあと **に** 食べます。 (incorrect)

But what of the ～たあと form? If you Google for such phrases as 食べたあとで versus
食べたあとに, you end up with the same number (~8M) of results. Clearly both are
used commonly. What do we make of this?

Recall that に refers, as you know, to a specific point in time. で, on the
other hand, is more general, and indicates a range of time within which an
action takes place. For example:

> この本を３時間 **で** 読み終わった。 I finished reading this book in three hours.
>
> この本を３時間 **に** 読み終わった。 (incorrect)

From this contrast of specificity/generality we can conclude that ～たあとに shows
a tighter bond between the two actions, i.e. the second action takes place
very close to the end of the first. ～たあとで, by giving a range of time, is much
less specific about when the second action starts.

This rule of "immediate versus range" also applies to cases where the word
preceding あと is not a verb, but one of この, その, or あの:

> このあとに [right] after this
>
> このあとで [sometime] after this

There are of course cases when neither ～あとに nor ～あとで may be used, such as when
the first action is a prerequisite for the second:

> 歯を磨いてから寝なさい。 (not 磨いたあとで)

Or when the first action has a direct cause-and-effect relationship with the
second:

> このボタンを｛押したら／押すと｝お湯が出ます。 (not ボタンを押したあとで)
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> (1) 朝ご飯を食べた後 **に** テレビを見る。  
>  (2) 朝ご飯を食べた後 **で** テレビを見る。

I think it is a very interesting question. (+1)  
There are various answers about the difference between "に" and "で", but I'll
answer the difference only between the examples given by the questioner.

(1) and (2) seem to have the same meaning at first glance and I could
understand the meaning. However, (2) is correct as Japanese, but (1) is not
perfectly correct.

Strictly speaking, (2) shows the "situation" after eating breakfast, not
"time", and (1) may imply the "time" or "condition" after eating breakfast.

(2) is a good Japanese as it is because the "situation" is well described, but
(1) is insufficient because the "time" or "condition" is not well described.

(1) will become correct Japanese if added with the expression of time or
condition as follows.

(1)-1 朝ご飯を食べた後 **すぐ/すぐに** テレビを見る。  
(1)-2 朝ご飯を食べた後 **食卓{しょくたく}を片付｛かたづ｝けてから/お茶碗｛ちゃわん｝を洗｛あら｝ってから** テレビを見る。  
(1)-3 朝ご飯を食べた後 **お茶碗を洗いながら** テレビを見る。  
(1)-4 朝ご飯を食べた後 **９時｛じ｝まで** テレビを見る。  
(1)-5 朝ご飯を食べた後に **別｛べつ｝の部屋｛へや｝で** テレビを見る。  
(1)-6 朝ご飯を食べた後に **家族｛かぞく｝と/家族と一緒{いっしょ}に** テレビを見る。
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