Learn Hardcore Chinese: Suīrán tā xiān shēnqǐng shībài le, dànshì hòulái yòu shēnqǐng le yì cì, zhōngyú chénggōng le. - Although her first application failed, later she applied again and finally succeeded.

In full, careful speech/writing, 虽然 is usually paired with 但是 / 可是 / 不过.
In everyday speech, the second connector is often omitted:
虽然她先申请失败了，后来又申请了一次，终于成功了。
This is natural and correct.

You normally cannot just say a sentence that starts with 虽然 and stop there; you’re expected to give the “but…” part.

What exactly does 先 mean here? Could I use 首先 or 第一 instead?

先 (xiān) is an adverb meaning “first / first of all / earlier (in time)”.

In 她先申请失败了, it means “at first, when she applied, she failed” or “her first application failed.”

Difference from related words:

先 – neutral, very common in speech, simply “first / before others / earlier.”
- Pattern: 先 + Verb, e.g. 先吃饭 “eat first”.
首先 – “firstly / first of all”, often used in more formal lists or speeches.
第一 – “the first (one/step/point)”, an ordinal number.

In this sentence, 先 is the most natural choice.
You could say 她第一次申请失败了 (“her first application failed”), but 首先申请失败了 or 第一申请失败了 would sound odd here.

What does 后来 mean, and how is it different from 然后 or 以后?

后来 (hòulái) means “later; afterward”, but specifically:

It’s used when you’re telling a story about the past, and you move on to what happened later on in that story.
It often contrasts an earlier situation with a later, different one.

Here: 后来又申请了一次 = “later, (she) applied again.”

Comparison:

后来 – later on (within a narrative about the past)
- 我先在北京工作，后来搬到了上海。
然后 – “and then / after that”, just marks sequence, not change of situation
- 我吃完饭，然后去上班。
以后 – “after; in the future (after some point)”
- 下课以后去图书馆。
- 以后我想去中国工作。 (“in the future”)

In this sentence, we are contrasting earlier failure with a later success in a past story, so 后来 is the natural choice.

Why do we use 又 here? What’s the difference between 又 and 再?

又 (yòu) and 再 (zài) both relate to repetition, but they differ in tense and feeling.

In 后来又申请了一次:

又 means “again (and it actually happened)”.
The whole phrase means “later she applied again (one more time).”

General rule of thumb:

For something that happened again in the past: use 又
- 他昨天迟到了一次，今天又迟到了。
For something you will do again in the future / hypothetically: use 再
- 明天再申请一次。 “Apply one more time tomorrow.”
- 如果失败了，就再试一次。 “If it fails, then try once more.”

So here, because the second application really happened in the past, 又 is the correct choice.

Why do we say 申请了一次? What does 一次 do, and is it necessary?

一次 (yí cì) literally means “one time / once”.

次 (cì) is the measure word for occurrences of an action.
申请了一次 = “applied once (one time).”

In this context, 又申请了一次 means “(she) applied one more time.”

Is 一次 necessary?

后来又申请了 already means “she applied again,” so the sentence is grammatically fine without 一次.
一次 adds clarity that it was one more attempt (not many attempts) and sounds very natural here, but it’s not absolutely required.

If you wanted to stress “many times,” you could say 又申请了很多次 (“applied many more times”).

Why is the subject 她 not repeated in the second part 后来又申请了一次，终于成功了?

In Chinese, when several clauses share the same subject, you often mention the subject only once and then omit it in the following clauses.

Here:

First clause: 她先申请失败了 – “She first applied and failed.”
Second and third: 后来又申请了一次，终于成功了 – we understand it is still 她, so it’s left out.

You could repeat it:

但是后来她又申请了一次，她终于成功了。

This is grammatically fine, but sounds a bit heavier and more repetitive. Native speakers usually omit the repeated 她 unless they want to emphasize the subject or avoid ambiguity.

There is 了 after 失败, after 申请, and after 成功. Are these all the same “le”, and what are they doing?

In this sentence, all the 了 (le) mark that actions or situations are completed / have occurred, which in English often corresponds to a past event or new result.

失败了 – “(she) failed”
The failure is viewed as a completed fact or new state.
申请了一次 – “applied once”
The application is a completed action.
成功了 – “succeeded / ended up succeeding”
A new state is reached: from “not successful” to “successful.”

For learners, it’s enough to see all of them here as the perfective 了: they show that each event actually happened (first failure, another application, and eventual success), fitting the past-time story.

In some grammar books you’ll see a distinction between verb‑了 and sentence‑final 了, but in this sentence they all work together to present a series of completed events.

What does 终于 add to the meaning? How is it different from 最后?

终于 (zhōngyú) means “finally / at long last”, and it carries an emotional sense of “after a lot of waiting, effort, or difficulty, the hoped‑for result happened.”

In 终于成功了:

It suggests: after failing before and trying again, she at long last succeeded.
There is a feeling of relief or satisfaction.

Difference from 最后 (zuìhòu):

最后 mainly means “last; in the end; finally (as the final step)”, focusing on sequence.
- Example: 我先吃饭，然后看电视，最后睡觉。
终于 emphasizes the outcome after struggle or delay, usually a positive/expected result.
- Example: 等了三个小时，火车终于来了。

In this sentence, 终于成功了 is more natural because we want to highlight success after previous failure.
最后成功了 is not wrong, but it sounds more neutral and less emotional.

Why is it 申请失败了 and not just 申请了失败 or something else? How does 申请 combine with 失败 here?

申请失败了 is a verb + result complement structure:

申请 – “to apply”
失败 – “to fail”
申请失败了 – literally “(her) applying resulted in failure” → “her application failed / she failed in applying.”

In Chinese, it’s very common to express outcomes as:

Verb + 成功 / 失败 / 好 / 完 / 到 / 见 etc.

Examples:

考试通过了 – “(I) passed the exam.”
计划失败了 – “the plan failed.”
事情办好了 – “the matter has been handled (well).”

申请了失败 would be wrong because 失败 here isn’t an object you “apply for”; it’s the result of the action 申请.

You could also say 申请不成功 (“the application was not successful”), which is similar in meaning but slightly softer in tone than 申请失败.

Where do adverbs like 先, 后来, 又, and 终于 usually go in a Chinese sentence?

Most such words are placed before the main verb or adjective of their clause.

In this sentence:

她先申请失败了
- 先 comes right before the verb phrase 申请失败.
后来又申请了一次
- 后来 is a time word placed at the start of the clause.
- 又 is before the verb 申请.
终于成功了
- 终于 is before the verb/adjective 成功.

A common template is:

(Time) + Subject + (time / degree / mood adverbs) + Verb + (object / complements)

Examples:

我昨天在图书馆又看见了他。
他后来就不来了。
我们终于找到了问题的原因。

So in your sentence, the positions of 先, 后来, 又, and 终于 follow this general pattern.

How is past time expressed in this sentence if there is no past tense like in English?

Chinese doesn’t have verb tenses like English -ed. Instead, past events are shown by a combination of:

Aspect markers like 了 (completed action / new situation)
Time words that place events on a timeline

In this sentence:

先, 后来, 终于 order the events in time: first → later → finally.
了 after 失败, 申请, and 成功 shows these events are completed.

So even without a special past-tense form of the verbs, a native speaker immediately understands this as a past narrative:

First she failed,
later she applied again,
and finally she succeeded.