Afterward Vs Afterwards

The words afterward and afterwards are both used correctly. The only significant limitation is that when the word afterwards is used, it can only be used as an adverb and in relation to time. For example: "The boy needs to eat all of his dinner and he can have dessert afterwards." It is considered more formal to use the word afterward without the "s" at the end. Also if a person is describing .

Words such as backward, forward, afterward, upward, toward, Northward, outward, seaward, heavenward, landward, onward, etc. and their cousins backwards, forwards, afterwards, upwards, towards, Northwards, outwards, seawards, heavenwards, landwards, onwards, etc. are commonly misused. Most people have no idea of which goes where.The complicating problem with these directionality words is that they may often be used in the position of either an adverb or an adjective. The common consensus is that the -s ending words are newer and less formal, while the -ward ending words are more formal and more appropriate for written English. Written English is almost always more formal than spoken English. Therefore, the simple way out of the situation is this: using the non -s ending word is guaranteed to be acceptable, whereas the -s ending words are only acceptable sometimes, usually as an adverb. The -s ending is wrong when used as an adjective.The -ward words are considered the grammatically correct version when the word is used as an adjective to modify a noun. When the word modifies a verb as an adverb, either version is appropriate, the -ward version or the -s version. The simple rule to follow is that the -ward version is always correct and never violates any rules of grammar. However, the distinction is a minor one, at that. Most English teachers and professors will not even bother to quibble over it. Some experts on dialects have noticed a few trends between British usage and American usage, but rules regarding the proscriptive use of either are few and lacking.So go ahead and use the -ward endings whenever wished. They indicate a more educated speaker, and they are the older versions of the words. That means they may have always been the correct words to say and the -s versions just creeped into the language through misspeaking or colloquialisms. Trying to keep track of the difference is something that even English experts are not bothering to do.