The stage manager’s running order for tonight’s show is taped to the backstage wall, and one line keeps catching the eye of the visiting director from London: “Cast party afterward.” In her copy of the script, the same line reads “Cast party afterwards.” Neither version is wrong. Neither version is a typo. They are the same word wearing two different endings, and the choice between them is a matter of which side of the Atlantic the writer is standing on — and of one quiet rule about how English builds adverbs out of direction words.
Afterward and afterwards are both correct, and they mean exactly the same thing: at a later time, after something has happened. The difference is regional preference. American English favors afterward. British English favors afterwards. The choice does not change the meaning of the sentence, and no reader on either side of the ocean will misunderstand either form.
The Running Order
Start with the word doing its ordinary job. Afterward is an adverb — it tells you when something happens. “We had dinner and went for a walk afterward.” “She apologized afterward.” “I realized my mistake afterward.” “They discussed the problem afterward.” In each sentence, the word points to a time after an earlier event. It does not need a noun after it. “We talked afterward” is complete. “We talked after the movie” says the same thing with a noun phrase instead of an adverb.
Afterwards does exactly the same job in exactly the same sentences. “We had dinner and went for a walk afterwards.” “She apologized afterwards.” Swap one for the other anywhere in the paragraph above and nothing changes — not the meaning, not the grammar, not the tone. The two forms are free variants, the way toward and towards are free variants, and the way backward and backwards are free variants.
There is one grammatical point worth knowing, because it surprises people. Afterward and afterwards are adverbs only. They cannot do the job of an adjective. You cannot write “the afterward discussion” or “the afterwards meeting” in standard English. For the adjective job, English uses later, subsequent, or following: “the subsequent discussion,” “a later meeting.” The afterward family tells you when. It never tells you which one.
The -s That Wanders
The wandering S at the end of afterwards is not random. It belongs to a family of English adverbs that come in pairs, one with -s and one without. Toward and towards. Backward and backwards. Forward and forwards. Upward and upwards. Downward and downwards. In every pair, the two forms mean the same thing, and the difference is regional: American English prefers the form without S, British English prefers the form with S.
The S has a history. In Old English, adverbs were often formed by adding a genitive -s ending to a word — the same -s that marks possession in “the dog’s bone.” The -s in afterwards is a fossil of that old adverb-forming ending. American English gradually dropped it from most of these words. British English kept it. Neither development is a corruption. They are two ways of handling the same inheritance, and both are standard.
The same wandering S appears in other corners of the language. Anyways is an informal variant of anyway. Somewheres appears in dialect. Beside and besides split into different meanings — one of the few pairs where the S changed the sense. But for the -ward family, the S is purely a matter of variety, and the safest choice is to match your audience.
Two Audiences, Two Spellings
The practical rule is simple: match the spelling to the reader. Writing for an American audience — a US newspaper, a US publisher, a US school, an American company’s style guide — use afterward. Writing for a British audience — a UK newspaper, a UK publisher, a British school — use afterwards. Writing for an international audience, pick one and be consistent.
Consistency is the real rule, because it is the only one that readers actually notice. A document that uses afterward on page one and afterwards on page five looks unedited, even though both forms are correct. A document that uses one form throughout looks polished, even if a reader on the other side of the ocean would have chosen differently. The choice of form is a house-style decision. The consistency of the choice is a professionalism decision.
There is also a subtle frequency point. In American writing, afterward is not just preferred — it is dominant. A British reader meeting afterward will not pause. In British writing, afterwards is common but not exclusive; a fair number of British writers use afterward too, especially in formal prose. The asymmetry means that afterward is the safer default for international writing: it is accepted everywhere, while afterwards occasionally draws a copyeditor’s pencil in American publishing.
Afterward vs After: The Neighbor Problem
The most common real-world confusion is not between afterward and afterwards. It is between afterward and after. The two words overlap, and writers often reach for the wrong one.
After is a preposition or conjunction — it needs something after it. “After the movie.” “After we ate.” “After the meeting ended.” Afterward is an adverb — it stands alone. “We talked afterward.” “After we ate, we talked afterward” is redundant; “After we ate, we talked” is cleaner. The test is simple: if the word is followed by a noun, a clause, or an -ing phrase, it is after. If it stands at the end of the clause with nothing after it, it is afterward.
The same test sorts out afterwards. “Afterwards, we went home” — the adverb opens the sentence, followed by a comma. “After the show, we went home” — the preposition takes the noun phrase “the show.” Both are correct. The writer’s job is to pick the form that fits the sentence’s shape, not to treat the two words as rivals.
Afterward in the Wild
The word earns its keep in every register, and its behavior changes subtly across them. In journalism, afterward is the standard connective in narrative: “The suspect was released. Afterward, he left the city.” In academic writing, it appears in methodology and results: “Participants completed the survey. Afterward, they were debriefed.” In fiction, it carries the story forward: “Afterward, she never spoke of it again.” In everyday speech, it is the ordinary word for “later”: “I’ll call you afterward.”
The word also has a set of near-synonyms, and choosing among them is a matter of precision. Later is the plainest alternative: “I’ll call you later.” Subsequently is the formal one, common in academic and legal writing: “The policy was subsequently revised.” Thereafter is the legal and literary one: “Thereafter, the parties agreed.” After that is the conversational one: “After that, we went home.” Afterward sits in the middle of this range — neither formal nor casual, at home in every register.
One phrase deserves a warning: “afterwards” sometimes appears in the construction “soon afterwards” or “shortly afterwards,” both standard in British English. American English prefers “soon afterward” or “shortly afterward.” The construction is the same. Only the ending changes.
Afterward in Storytelling: The Sequel Word
Afterward has a special job in storytelling: it is the word that opens the sequel. “Afterward, she never spoke of it again” is not just a time marker. It is a promise that the story continues, that the consequences are coming, that what happened next matters as much as what happened before. Novelists use it to bridge scenes. Memoirists use it to bridge years. Historians use it to bridge eras: “Afterward, the empire never recovered.”
The word also does quiet work in everyday storytelling. “We met at the conference. Afterward, we stayed in touch.” The sentence is short, but it carries a whole relationship in two clauses — a meeting, and everything that followed. The word is the hinge between the event and its aftermath, and it is one of the most efficient hinges in the language. A story told without it would have to spell out every transition. A story told with it can move.
There is a cousin worth meeting: aftermath. An aftermath is the result or consequence of an event, especially a bad one: “the aftermath of the storm.” Aftermath is a noun — it names the period after, not the time itself. “In the aftermath of the storm” is a phrase about consequences. “Afterward, we rebuilt” is a sentence about time. The two words share the after- opening and divide the work: one names the consequences, the other names the clock.
The Cue Sheet Test
Back at the stage manager’s wall, the running order reads the same in both versions: the cast party happens after the show, and the spelling on the cue sheet does not change the time of the party. When the word appears in your draft, run one check: whose English am I writing? American — drop the S: afterward. British — keep the S: afterwards. Then apply the same answer to the whole -ward family — toward/towards, backward/backwards, forward/forwards — and the document will read as if it was written by one hand, in one variety, on one side of the Atlantic.
And if a colleague corrects your afterwards to afterward, or vice versa, you can now answer with confidence: both are standard, the meaning is identical, and the choice is a matter of variety and consistency. The S is a wanderer, and it has wandered to different homes on different shores. Pick the home your readers live in, and the word will be welcome there.
