I’m so lucky that I’ve been allowed to study English for a year. It’s going well but I need help from you native speakers to explain a task. It’s a short one, but I’m struggling to solve it.
I am to explain the difference in meaning between these two sentences:
A. I’ll take the later bus home
B. I’ll take the bus home later.
IMO, “later” in sentence A is a pre-modifier of the noun “bus”. It means that the speaker will take a later bus home than originally planned.
In B, “later” acts as an adverb and it means that the speaker, rather than take the bus home right now, will wait for a later bus.
Am I on to something here?
I think A implies a choice between two buses "the earlier one" and "the later one". It assumes the listener knows which bus you're talking about. (in reality, they probably don't have a clue, and there are more than two buses, and you're just saying that to say that you're staying extra long in work today).
In B, the emphasis is likely on "bus" - as when you're answering the question, "how are you going to get home?". The "later" is just there to say you're not doing it right now, and is also a bit dismissive, as to say, don't worry about it.
(Not a native speaker btw, hah!)