Des enfants parlent de leurs métiers futurs

What does “plus tard” mean in French?

Qu’est-ce que tu veux faire plus tard ? is the question every French child gets asked, and it means “what do you want to be when you grow up?” Plus tard carries the growing up on its own: no verb for it, no age mentioned, just “later.” Outside that question it keeps the plain sense, at any distance — on verra plus tard, “we’ll see later.”

Keep it apart from the shorter horizons French marks separately: tout à l’heure is later today, and après is simply “afterwards.” Clipped, plus tard turns into a goodbye — à plus tard, and in speech à plus, where the final s is usually pronounced even though it is silent in the long form.