You use after all when you are mentioning an additional point which confirms or supports what you have just said.
1. They did not expect heavy losses in the air; after all, they had superb aircraft.
2. They didn’t bother to tie me up. After all, there were four, five, six of them there, mostly with handguns.
You also use after all to say that something is the case or may be the case in spite of what had previously been thought.
3. Could it be true, after all, that money did not bring happiness?
4. Perhaps it isn’t such a bad village after all.
You do not use ‘after all’ to talk about what happens at the end of a long period. You use at last, finally, in the end, or last of all.
You use at last or finally to say that something happens after you have been waiting for it or expecting it for a long time.
You can use at last at the end of a sentence.
5. The storm that had threatened for so long broke at last
Finally usually comes either at the beginning of a sentence or in front of a verb.
6. After another search on the map they finally located it.
You also use finally to talk about an act or result that is last in a series of things.
7. He lived in turn in Turkey, France, Norway, and finally Mexico.
8. Let’s come finally to the question of pensions.
You use in the end when you are talking about a situation that comes about after a long time or after a long process.
9. ‘Perhaps the police got him in the end,’ Sam said.
10. The performance was quite a success in the end.
11. In the end, Peter seemed quite happy and so did I.
You use lastly to talk about the last of a series of people or things.
1. Then I went through the bathroom and lastly the bed-sitting room. 2. Lastly he jabbed the knife hard into the trunk of the tree.
You use last of all to emphasize that there is nobody or nothing else after the person or thing you mention.
3. In rapid succession his friends’ faces appear and disappear: last of all he sees Lewis SeideVs maddening smile.
4. Last of all came the cat.
