rusuden o kiitara, sensei kara 「ato de orikaeshite kudasai」 to haitte imashita.

When I listened to my voicemail, there was a message from the teacher saying, “Please call me back later.”

Breakdown of rusuden o kiitara, sensei kara 「ato de orikaeshite kudasai」 to haitte imashita.

• を: direct object particle
• 先せん生せい: teacher
• と: quotative particle

Questions & Answers about rusuden o kiitara, sensei kara 「ato de orikaeshite kudasai」 to haitte imashita.

What does 留守電 mean? Is it a shortened form?

Yes. 留守電（るすでん） is a casual shortened form of 留守番電話（るすばんでんわ）, which means answering machine or voicemail.

In everyday Japanese, people very often say 留守電 instead of the full 留守番電話.

So here, 留守電を聞いたら means something like when I listened to the voicemail.

Why is を used after 留守電?

Because 聞く means to listen to or to hear, and the thing being listened to is marked with を.

So:

• 留守電を聞く = to listen to the voicemail
• 音楽を聞く = to listen to music
• 話を聞く = to listen to a story / what someone says

In this sentence, 留守電 is the direct object of 聞いたら.

What does 聞いたら mean here? Is it really an if?

Grammatically, ～たら can mean if, but very often it means when or after in a past-event sequence.

Here, 留守電を聞いたら does not mean a hypothetical if I listen to the voicemail. It means:

• when I listened to the voicemail
• after listening to the voicemail

So the sentence is describing what the speaker found out upon listening to the message.

Why is it and not or ?