Word choice can be tricky, especially if English is not your first language. However, even native speakers of English get confused over ‘consequently’ and ‘subsequently’. Both are are very useful in academic contexts, though, when used correctly!
The word ‘consequently’ means ‘as a result’. It comes from the Latin ‘consequentum‘, which means ‘result’. The prefix ‘con-‘ means ‘with’, while ‘sequi’ means ‘to follow’. When you know what the parts of this word mean, it’s fairly easy to use it correctly.
Here is an example sentence:
In the tale ‘The Hare and the Tortoise’, the hare took a nap and, consequently, the tortoise was able to win.
You can check if you have the usage correct by replacing the word ‘consequently’ with the phrase ‘as a result’:
In the tale ‘The Hare and the Tortoise’, the hare took a nap and, as a result, the tortoise was able to win.
The word ‘subsequently’ also has a Latin root. It comes from the word ‘subsequentum‘ meaning ‘to come after in time’. The prefix ‘sub-‘ here means ‘behind’, and so we can understand it to mean ‘following’. Here is an example of a sentence using ‘subsequently’:
The Hare slept for three hours. Subsequently, he woke up and realised he had lost the race.
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Here, we can check if we have the right word by substituting the phrase ‘after this’:
The Hare slept for three hours. After this, he woke up and realised he had lost the race.
It is tricky to remember which is which, but try to use the prefixes to help you:
Consequently = As a result of
Subsequently = After
If you get stuck trying to remember this, think of the children’s game Consequences, in which a piece of paper is passed round a group and each person writes a line of the story without seeing the others. It’s called ‘consequences’ because the game is all about writing what happened as a result of the previous thing.
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