I have seen the wrod or phrase ‘after all’ in the passage so many times, and I don’t think I understood.
What does the word mean?
And how can I use the word in daily language? Could you give me some examples?
There are two uses:
It emphasizes something to be considered; “After all, she is your boss, so invite her”; “He is, after all, our chairman.”
It indicates that something is taking place in spite of expectations; “You came to the party after all.” (we didn’t expect you to come because of prior events or discussions); “It didn’t rain after all.” (Something gave use the idea sometime earlier that it would rain in this particular period).
I made some sentences based on what I understood.
Do they make sense to you?
Let say I am talking on the phone with my best friend and telling her about my secret from my husband.
“Hey, I need to tell you something. I got tickets yesterday.”
–“Tickets? More than one?”
“Yeah. I got two tickets.”
–“For what?”
“They are parking violation.”
–“What happened?”
"I went to ‘NIS imaging’ because my daughter had to take the X-ray. The office was at downtown. And as you know, I am not good at driving in downtown because there are too many ‘one way’ roads.
Since I am not good at driving ‘one way’ road, I could not find the parking lots when I got there.
I kept driving backward and decided to park as other cars parked. They all parked in parallel parking. So, I parked like that and went inside the office. When I returned from the office, there were two tickets. The reason I got the tickets was because it was no parking freight zone permit only 272muq, no visible permit.
And my secret is I won’t tell this to my husband. He will be mad at me so much.”
–“Then how are you gonna pay the tickets?”
“by credit card.”
–“Didn’t you say your husband has access to your banking account?”
“Yes.”
–“Then, what are you talking about? He is going to find out anyway. He can go online and see the transactions. After all, he is your husband. What are you afraid for? Tell him the truth. He will understand you. I know you guys had a fight the other day, and this is not a good event that you can tell him at this point. But if you hide this little thing from him, he will get mad at you more than ever. This is nothing. Just go up and tell him the truth and pay the tickets. After all, he has a right to know how the money flows as well.
“It didn’t rain after all.” (Something gave use the idea sometime earlier that it would rain in this particular period).
I did not understand the above sensence clearly.
Can you explain more or could you give me other examples?
thank you so mcuh.
Sorry S,
I made a typo in that sentence which I didn’t notice at the time, and which might have confused you.
It should have read
‘Something gave us the idea…’ - though that could also have been worded better.
In the sentence,
It didn’t rain, after all.’ whoever is speaking obviously expected that it would rain - however it didn’t.
It has the same kind of meaning as ‘finally’ or ‘eventually’
I decided to go after all. - I wasn’t going to go, but I changed my mind and I went.
Wow, thank you.
I did not expect you to correct all my mistakes. This is very nice, and I am very touched.
Thank you again.
There are couple of sentences I still did not understand though.
Could you explain one more time please…?
-
‘Something gave us the idea…’ - though that could also have been worded better.
–I don’t understand why the word ‘though’ is in that place.
–What do you mean by ‘have been worded better’? -
Can I say like this?
–The office was in downtown. -
Since you did not correct my ‘after all’ sentences, that means I got them right, right?
Thank you so mcuh one more time.
I meant I should have been able to explain it clearer in the first place.
No. You shouldn’t use ‘in’ with downtown, because 'downtown is down / town… so there is already a preposition.
The office was downtown.
The office was at the other end of town.
The office was in the quieter part of the town.
Right… but check the new thread you started.