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I think that this requires the expertise of native speakers.

Here is a sentence:

"Juan vio a Roberto después que regresó de Francia."

My question:  Who has returned from France--Juan or Roberto?

Here is another sentence:

"Juan vio a Roberto despues que él regresó de Francia."

Does this change who has returned from France? 

And most importantly, how do you know these answers?

Cheers!

Bueno, a mí me enseñaron "Castellano" en la casa y en la escuela (en Chile).
In both sentences is not very clear who has returned from France. It could be Juan but also Roberto.
I know it because "él" is unspecified. The only possibility to know who's "él" is in the context, but that's missing.
The adding of "él" (explicit) in the second sentence changes nothing to the meaning of the first sentence (where "él" is tacit).

Saludos

It is difficult for even the castellanos  ::)

I think it is

"Juan vio a Roberto después que regresó de Francia."


returned from France  Juan


"Juan vio a Roberto despues que él regresó de Francia"

returned from France Roberto


but to avoid error

"Juan vio a Roberto después de que regresara de Francia.

returned from France Roberto

"Juan vio a Roberto después de haber regresado de Francia."

returned from France  Juan

most appropriate? go to portugal  :D

sorry for mi google english

Yes, this makes it identical to English.  Without more clarification it is impossible to know who returned.  Adding "he" ("él") makes no difference.

However:  [next reply]

This is the conclusion of a linguistics researcher studying Spanish speakers.

http://learninglanguages.celta.msu.edu/sla-vanpatten/ (http://learninglanguages.celta.msu.edu/sla-vanpatten/)

Video 4, starting at 6:40

He says that native Spanish speakers develop an internal rule that prefers Juan, and that this rule develops by about age 10. 

If "él" is added, then native speakers split 50-50 on whether it is Juan or Roberto.

What he does not specify is why!

Siento reflotar.

I think Roberto returned from France. Basically because it says \\\"Juan vio a Roberto después que regreso de Francia\\\".
It says \\\"que\\\" so as far as it has no Sprep/CN the action of returning falls over the SN/Suj of the phrase not on the SN/CI.

I think that solved your doubt!

Claro que esto es utilizando el analisís sintáctico como medio,.

Juan vio a Roberto después de regresar de Francia.

Gracias.  Pero still confused.  

But that\'s okay.   :o

Si pero ahí ya estás usando el Sprep/CN y el verbo en forma impersonal por tanto la acción recae sobre el SN/CI, pero en la otra frase al no llevar Sprep/CN la acción recae sobre el SN-Suj.

Saludos

Me voy a sumar a la discusión. Estoy con Remen, sencillamente esa manera de formular no es clara. Creo que lo mejor sería usar otra construcción, por ejemplo:


Cuando Juan regresó de Francia vio a Roberto.

ó

Al regresar Juan de Francia vio a Roberto.

ó

Después de regresar Juan de Francia vio a Roberto.


Bien, esa es mi opinión, a falta de contexto es mejor usar una formulación que no se preste a la ambigüedad.

O sólo lleva tilde cuando VA entre números para no confundirse con el 0.

Whoever has come from France, he came by plane. Otherwise this could have been a big offtopic.  :D

In ES_ES one must use "de" after "después". It is mandatory. But it is used to be missed in some American countries, maybe it is an English influence.
As Remen says, it is hard to tell whether Juan or Roberto came back, if you use "después de que regresó". So, we use some other conjugations in order to clarify, as ec-swr pointed. But this is something learn by doing, it depends more on the oral customs in the region where we live than in the rules of the language:

Infinitive:
"Juan vio a Roberto después de regresar de Francia."   Juan was in France.

Subjunctive:
"Juan vio a Roberto después de que regresara de Francia."  Roberto was in France

"...después de que regresó..." I fell tempted to think that Roberto came back, but I avoid that form.