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后来 (hòu lái) — afterwards; later

Definition

后来 tells the order of past events: 'later, afterwards, then'. Unlike 以后 (after any time), 之后 (written, more formal), 此后 (after a stated event), it focuses on what happened next in a past story.

noun
afterwardslater

Examples

  • 后来。
    hòu lái Wǒ xué xí hàn yǔ le.
    Later I started learning Chinese.
  • 后来。
    hòu lái Wǒ men jiàn miàn le.
    We met later.
  • 后来。
    hòu lái Wǒ cái zhī dào zhè jiàn shì.
    I only found out about this later.

Grammar

Appears in
HSK 3.0 Level 3HSK 2.0 Level 4Time (Abstract)2000 Most Frequent Chinese Words3000 Most Frequent Chinese Words5000 Most Frequent Chinese Words

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