Grammar: te + verb + shimashita


> 1) ごはんを食べて、ねました。  
>  2) あさおきて、新聞を読みました。

I was wondering, if the part [食べて] and [おきて] are also past tense, because of
[~ました]. So the correct translation would be [I went to bed, after I ate.] or
is it [I went to bed, after eating.]?

Somehow I can't find similar question to this. Anyway, thank you very much in
advance.




The -te construction is used here to describe one event happening after
another. More exact translations might be "I ate dinner, then went to bed" or
"I woke up, then read the paper."

If you wanted to write "I went to bed after I ate", you might use "食べた後で寝ました"
or similar.

