I was just replying to an e-mail from my aunt, when the spellchecker (from google toolbar I think) told me that I’d misspelled “afterwards” (see! there it goes again!) and gave me the options “afterward” and “afterwords”.

So I looked it up, and apparently “afterwards” is a variant.

Really?

Using “afterward” sounds weird to me. I’m sure I’ve heard it before and thought nothing of it, but when composing my own sentences it just doesn’t sound right. Is this a regional thing? If so, what regions does it encompass? Is it a national thing? I have no idea.

It just struck me as extremely odd to learn that I’d been using a variant all my life without even knowing it. And I’m going to keep using it, so take THAT Google Toolbar spellchecker and put it in your custom dictionary!