"It wasn't until later that I started to learn more"

[mwtzzz]

I'd like to translate "It wasn't until later that I started to learn more."

The way I would say this would be:

"Fue despues que empezé a aprender mas."

But I don't know if
(a) this is correct
(b) there is a more natural/better way to say it.

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

Después.

Más. -> Remember that there are words whose meaning changes if accent marks aren't written. (mas = but; más = more)

Empecé. -> When deriving words, z goes with a, o and u (or at the end of a word); c goes with e and i. ;)

· Comenzar - comienzo - comencé
· Buzo - bucito - buceo
· Cruz - cruces - crucero
· Arroz - arrocito - arrocera


"Que" is fine, although my grandmother, who doesn't speak any other language than Spanish, finds it unusual. I'd prefer "cuando" instead of "que" to add a clear time idea. :)

[mwtzzz]

Angelica, thanks. I asked my dad (his first language was Spanish) and he said he would probably say it like this:

No era hasta despues que comenci aprender más.

I guess that's another way to express the same idea. I think he's just doing a literal translation there.

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

Comencé ;)

I wouldn't want to disagree, but the imperfect ("era") implies an idea of duration, which doesn't match your sentence, since you're talking about a specific moment in the past. :thinking:

[mwtzzz]

fue versus era.
fue being a specific moment.
era being a duration.

cool thanks.

[Rusty]

And replace the preposition that precedes the infinitive, which has disappeared.

[mwtzzz]

You corrected the "comenci to comencé" so I was curious as to whether my dad realized his mistake. Here's what he said:

"It is comencé. It is mispronounced sometimes, like "Si, yo comenci a trabajar" by farmers and other uneducated people."