What is the meaning of …
AFTER ALL?

Definition:

This expression can have a couple of definitions which are similar:

1.  It can mean something like, “I want to remind you.”

2. It can mean even though it might look like this is not true, or people expect that it isn’t true, it is.

Use AFTER ALL when you want to say,  “It may not seem/look/appear this way, but this is the way it is.”

Examples:

1.  I know I don’t act very mature, but I am 21, after all.

2. Yes, I took that child’s candy, but that child is my daughter and she has an allergy to sugar.  I am not, after all, an unkind person.

2.  Yes, I am going to a movie with Josh. He is my friend, after all.

See the STORY The Sleepover example: This was, after all, a sleepover.

See the example:  So the wife decided that everything was okay, and that her husband hadn’t, after all, taken advantage of the man.

Another way of writing the example above would be:

So the wife decided that everything was okay, and that her husband hadn’t, as it originally appeared, taken advantage of the man.

 

more VOCABULARY words