Questions & Answers about Sen jälkeen hän soitti minulle.
Why is it sen jälkeen instead of just se jälkeen?
The word jälkeen (after) is a postposition. In Finnish, most postpositions require the word right before them to be in the genitive case (the -n ending). Therefore, the pronoun se (it/that) changes to sen.
Why is the ending -lle used on minulle (to me)?
When the verb soittaa means "to call on the phone", it requires the person receiving the call to be in the allative case (the -lle ending). While in English you just "call someone", in Finnish you always "call to someone".
Wait, doesn't soittaa mean "to play"?
It means both! Soittaa can mean "to play an instrument" (like soittaa kitaraa) or "to call on the phone". You can tell it means "called" here because it is followed by a person in the -lle form (minulle).
Is it okay to change the word order and say Hän soitti minulle sen jälkeen?
Yes, absolutely! Finnish word order is flexible. Putting Sen jälkeen (After that) at the very beginning of the sentence simply emphasizes the timeline of events, making it a very natural way to connect this sentence to whatever happened just before it.