shigoto ga owattara, sugu ni ie ni kaerimasu.

When work finishes, I go home immediately.

Breakdown of shigoto ga owattara, sugu ni ie ni kaerimasu.

• に: destination particle
• が: subject particle
• 家いえ: home
• 仕事しごと: work

Questions & Answers about shigoto ga owattara, sugu ni ie ni kaerimasu.

What does the particle が do after 仕事? Why not を?

が marks 仕事 as the subject of the verb 終わったら (from 終わる, "to finish/end").

• 仕事が終わったら literally: "When work has finished"
  → Work is the thing that ends, so it’s the subject, marked by が.

Using を would be wrong here because 終わる in this sentence is intransitive (something ends by itself), not transitive (someone ends something). Compare:

• 仕事が終わる – Work finishes / Work comes to an end.
• 仕事を終える – (I) finish the work. (終える is transitive, so it can take を.)

So 仕事が終わったら is correctly using が for the subject of an intransitive verb.

What exactly is 終わったら? Why does it look like past tense plus ら?

終わったら is the たら-form (conditional) of 終わる.

Formation:

• Dictionary form: 終わる
• Plain past: 終わった
• Add ら: 終わったら

Function:

• The たら-form often means "when/after (something has happened)" or "if/when (something happens)".
• Here, 仕事が終わったら means "when work is finished" or "after work is finished".

So it’s not "past tense + random ら" — it’s a standard conditional pattern:
Verb (た-form) + ら → "when/after/if V".

Why is 終わった (past form) used, when this sentence is about the future?