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I was reading online when I saw this:
昨日、学校が終わってから、桜子の家に子犬を見に行った。
Translates to
Yesterday, after school was over, I went to see the puppy at Sakurako's house.
Now the question is, in 学校が終わってから, if 学校が終わって is a noun, then the から here would mean "from". Whereas if it's a verb, then it would mean "because". I have two questions: First, is the て form a noun? Secondly, how does 学校が終わってから possibly translate to "after school was over"?
から has a third use when combined with the te-form of a verb:
verb-て + から = after (doing) verb
You should remember this as a set grammar pattern; it's a very important one.
The te-form is most definitely not a noun but you can still think of から as having a 'from' kind of meaning in this case. 'From (the time of) doing verb' is kind of like 'after doing verb' isn't it?
So 学校が終わってから means 'after school finished', simply because てから means 'after'.
