Use of Jiu4 versus use of Ran2hou4

[shivan]

I am a little confused about when to 就 and when to use 然后

From what i learned at grammarclass 就 is used to show that something happend right after the jiu4. It can loosely be translated as "then"

Example sentece

wo3 kan4 shu1 jiu4 qu4 xue2xiao4

我看书就去学校

I read books then go to school

(As i am a beginner I am not even 100% sure that this sentece is correct, nice going..)

Then I encounder 然后 which has the meaning afterwards. More or less this would be the same to me.

However, I sense there is some difference in useage that I am unaware of.

To complicate matters more I also found out that 了 can have a meaning a little like that, or at least the two are used togeather.

Example sentense copied out of my school book

福格吃了早饭就去飞机场

了 is amongt many other things used to show that one thing happens before another.

So the meaning of the sence would be

Fogh (fu2ge2) fihishes eating breakfast then goes to the airport.

(Correct translation?)

I am also very much confused about 了 but I will read more and then make another thread about that matter if it is needed.

But keypoint is can someone tell me the difference between 了 and 然后?

[Koneko]

我看书就去学校

I read books then go to school

I think it should be "To read books, I ONLY go to school (to do it)"

ONLY = 就

福格吃了早饭就去飞机场

了 is amongt many other things used to show that one thing happens before another.

So the meaning of the sence would be

Fogh (fu2ge2) fihishes eating breakfast then goes to the airport.

(Correct transl

This should be "AS SOON AS Fogh finished his breakfast, he left for the airport"

AS SOON AS = 就

Hope it helps!

K.

[gougou]

But keypoint is can someone tell me the difference between 了 and 然后?

了 indicates that the action finished. So you might have a sentence that just reads 福格吃完早饭了。 Fogh finished eating breakfast. 了 does not mean afterwards, the afterwards is conveyed by the 就 in your example sentence (do note that the 就 will occasionally be omitted though).

然后, on the other hand, explicitly means "afterwards".

[anonymoose]

I'm only a learner myself, so take anything I say with a pinch of salt, but as far as I understand, 就 emphasizes the immediacy of the following action, whereas 然后 just means afterwards, but it could be one second afterwards, or one year afterwards.

Also, in the 就 construction, I think 了 following the first verb is obligatory. Thus your sentence 福格吃了早饭就去飞机场 is OK, but 我看书就去学校 would be better with 了 as in 我看了书就去学校.

If I'm wrong, any corrections/comments would be welcome.

[Sunny_xu]

I think " 我看完[了]书就去学校" would be better.

“我看了书就去学校” could be right, but it just sounds a little weird to me.

i also prefer using "完了" in "我看完了电影就去逛街", "我打完了球就去洗澡".

however, "吃饭" won't have this problem(吃了饭=吃完[了]饭), funny.

[Koneko]

but 我看书就去学校 would be better with 了 as in 我看了书就去学校.

Both sentences do not quite mean the same thing though.

The former sentence indicates something like, "I ONLY/JUST go to school to read books"

While the latter sentence means something totally different, "AS SOON AS I finish this book, I will leave for school"

[Gulao]

Sentences of this form: 福格吃了早饭就去飞机场 don't really translate to a (action) then (following action) sentence, in my opinion. That translation separates the events too much. I think it's closer to say, "Having eaten breakfast, Fuge went straight to the airport."

This is the major difference between the two constructions. 然后 doesn't imply any kind of immediacy, while 就 does.

[trien27]

jiu4 = this instant or just. ranhou = then, afterwards.