文法Grammar Point
te kara · JLPT N5
〜てから means “after doing”. It is a JLPT N5 pattern: below are its construction, the nuances that trip learners up, and the sentences where real Japanese writers use it.
A free one-page study card for 〜てから (after doing), JLPT N5: what it means, how it attaches, 3 example sentences with furigana, and the nuances that trip learners up. Read it right here, or take the PDF or PNG with you. We never ask for an email for this card.
手を洗ってから食べます is “I’ll eat after washing my hands.” Attach から to the て-form of the first verb; only the final verb in the sentence carries tense. It has a second job too: with a stretch of time it means “since”, as in 日本に来てから三年になります (“it’s been three years since I came to Japan”).
構文Construction
Verb (て-form) + から
宿題をしてから、遊びます。 — I’ll play after I’ve done my homework.
Only the LAST verb carries tense
晩ご飯を食べてから、映画を見ました。 — After eating dinner, I watched a film.
〜てから + elapsed time = “since”
結婚してから十年経ちました。 — Ten years have passed since we got married.
例文In a sentence
手を洗ってから、ご飯を食べましょう。
仕事が終わってから、電話します。
日本に来てから、三年になります。
注意点Nuances
練習Your Turn
Each one is quoted from a published Japanese text in this library and links to the story it came from. Some use older spellings, or break off where the sentence carried on. They are transcribed exactly as their authors wrote them.
洗ってから食べます。
— from The Paper Lantern (N1)
小島勇次郎が戦死してから半ヶ月ばかり経って
— from The Spirit Possessing the Mother (N1)
しかってから、はっとして
— from The Cat and the Sweet Red Bean Soup (N3)
考えてから
— from Forty and Unconfused (N1)
3 sentences taken from real Japanese texts, with the grammar removed. Pick what belongs in the gap.
Question 1 of 3
小島勇次郎が戦死しblank半ヶ月ばかり経って
Answer: てから — from The Spirit Possessing the Mother (N1)
しかっblank、はっとして
Answer: てから — from The Cat and the Sweet Red Bean Soup (N3)
洗っblank食べます。
Answer: てから — from The Paper Lantern (N1)
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Every sentence above came from a free text you can read here in full, with the rest of the story around it.
Appears in 5 of 367 texts in our library.
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解説Background
〜てから sits at JLPT N5 in the 302-point taxonomy every text in this library is tagged against. Each text is read for the patterns it contains, which is what lets this page list every text that uses 〜てから and pull its example sentences out of them.
The example sentences were not written to demonstrate the rule. They are quoted from published Japanese texts in this library (The Paper Lantern and The Spirit Possessing the Mother among them), and each one links back to the story it came from, so you can read the sentence where it actually happened.
質問Questions
The plain て-form just links actions in the order they happened. 〜てから adds the claim that the first one must finish before the second starts. Use it when the sequence is the point — 予約してから行ってください (“book first, then go”).
Yes. Followed by a length of time it marks the starting point rather than a sequence: 日本語を勉強してから五年になります (“it’s been five years since I started studying Japanese”). The verb is still in て-form; only the second half changes.
Only the last one. The verb before から always stays in plain て-form regardless of when the action happened, and the final verb carries past, present or polite marking for the whole sentence.
Yes. A free one-page 〜てから (after doing) study card sits at the top of this page, as both a PDF and a PNG. It carries the JLPT N5 meaning, how the pattern attaches, 3 example sentences with furigana, and the nuances learners get wrong. You do not need an account or an email address to download it.
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