Learn Hardcore Norwegian: Etter å ha blokkert de uærlige kontoene, slettet hun flere gamle bilder som gjorde henne sårbar. - After having blocked the dishonest accounts, she deleted several old photos that made her vulnerable.

You cannot just put a past participle (blokkert) directly after etter the way you could in English (after blocked…), so etter blokkert is ungrammatical. The natural options are:

Etter å ha blokkert de uærlige kontoene, …
Etter at hun hadde blokkert de uærlige kontoene, …
(after she had blocked…; full clause with subject and verb)

What is the difference between Etter å ha blokkert and Etter at hun hadde blokkert?

Both describe something happening after a completed action, but the structure is different:

Etter å ha blokkert de uærlige kontoene, slettet hun …
- etter
  - å ha
    - past participle (blokkert)
- No explicit subject in that phrase; we understand it's the same person as hun.
- More compact, very common in written Norwegian.
Etter at hun hadde blokkert de uærlige kontoene, slettet hun …
- etter at introduces a full clause with its own subject and verb:
  - subject: hun
  - verb phrase: hadde blokkert
- Slightly heavier/wordier, but also very correct and natural.

Meaning-wise, they’re practically the same here. It’s mostly a stylistic choice.

Why is it å ha blokkert and not å blokkere?

The difference is aspect (completed vs ongoing):

etter å blokkere kontoene
Literally: after to block the accounts – sounds wrong in Norwegian; it would suggest the blocking happens after something else, not that it is finished.
etter å ha blokkert kontoene
after having blocked the accounts – the blocking is completed before the next action.

So with etter (after) and a completed action, use å ha + past participle:

etter å ha spist – after having eaten
etter å ha sett filmen – after having seen the movie
etter å ha blokkert kontoene – after having blocked the accounts

What’s the difference between blokkerte and blokkert?

They are two different verb forms of å blokkere (to block):

blokkerte – past tense (preterite)
- Hun blokkerte kontoene i går.
  She blocked the accounts yesterday.
blokkert – past participle
- Hun har blokkert kontoene.
  She has blocked the accounts.
- Etter å ha blokkert kontoene, …
  After having blocked the accounts, …

So after å ha, you must use the past participle: ha blokkert, not ha blokkerte.

Why is the word order slettet hun and not hun slettet?

Norwegian follows the V2 rule in main clauses: the finite verb usually comes in second position.

In a normal sentence:

Hun slettet flere gamle bilder.
Subject (hun) is first, verb (slettet) is second.

But when you put something else first (like a time/adverbial phrase), the verb still has to be second. So the subject moves after the verb:

Etter å ha blokkert de uærlige kontoene, slettet hun flere gamle bilder.
1. Etter å ha blokkert de uærlige kontoene – fronted adverbial
2. slettet – verb (must be in 2nd position of the main clause)
3. hun – subject

That’s why slettet hun, not hun slettet, in this sentence.

Why is it de uærlige kontoene and not just uærlige kontoer?

This is a difference between definite and indefinite forms in the plural:

uærlige kontoer
= dishonest accounts (indefinite plural: some dishonest accounts)
de uærlige kontoene
= the dishonest accounts (definite plural: specific ones both speaker and listener know about)

Form breakdown:

de – definite plural article (the)
uærlige – adjective in plural
konto – noun stem
-ene – definite plural ending

So de uærlige kontoene is “the dishonest accounts”, referring to particular accounts she knows/had.

How is the form kontoene built, and what is the singular?

The noun is:

en konto – a(n) account (singular, indefinite)
kontoen – the account (singular, definite)
kontoer – accounts (plural, indefinite)
kontoene – the accounts (plural, definite)

In the sentence, kontoene is definite plural because we’re talking about those specific accounts she blocked.

In flere gamle bilder, why is it bilder and not bilde or bildene?

Bilde (picture, image) is a neuter noun:

et bilde – a picture (sg, indefinite)
bildet – the picture (sg, definite)
bilder – pictures (pl, indefinite)
bildene – the pictures (pl, definite)

The phrase flere gamle bilder means several old pictures:

flere – several
gamle – old (adjective in plural)
bilder – pictures (indefinite plural)

So you use bilder, not bildene, because you mean “several (unspecified) old pictures”, not “the old pictures”.

What is the nuance of flere here? Could we use mange instead?

Both are possible, but slightly different:

flere gamle bilder – several old pictures
- Focuses on “more than a few” but not specifying how many.
- Often implies a countable small‑to‑medium number.
mange gamle bilder – many old pictures
- Stronger sense of quantity – a large number.

In this sentence, flere suggests she deleted a noticeable number of pictures, but not necessarily a lot.

In bilder som gjorde henne sårbar, what does som do, and what does it refer to?

Som here is a relative pronoun meaning roughly that/which/who.

It refers back to bilder (pictures).
It introduces a relative clause describing those pictures:
- bilder [som gjorde henne sårbar]
  = pictures that made her vulnerable

So som is like English that or which in relative clauses:

mannen som ringte – the man who called
filmen som vi så – the movie that we watched
bildene som gjorde henne sårbar – the pictures that made her vulnerable

Why is it henne and not hun in gjorde henne sårbar?

Norwegian, like English, has different forms for subject vs object pronouns:

hun – she (subject form)
henne – her (object form)

Examples:

Hun slettet bildene. – She deleted the pictures. (subject)
Bildene gjorde henne sårbar. – The pictures made her vulnerable. (object)

In gjorde henne sårbar, henne is the object of the verb gjorde, so you must use henne, not hun.

Why is the adjective sårbar in that form? Why not sårbart or sårbare?

Sårbar (vulnerable) has these common forms:

sårbar – singular, common gender (and often used as the basic form)
sårbart – singular, neuter (e.g. et sårbart system)
sårbare – plural or definite (e.g. de sårbare barna)

In gjorde henne sårbar:

henne refers to a person (hun), which is common gender, singular.
The adjective in predicative position (after gjøre) agrees with that: sårbar.

Examples:

Hun er sårbar. – She is vulnerable.
De er sårbare. – They are vulnerable.
Det er sårbart. – It is vulnerable (neuter “it”).
Bildene gjorde henne sårbar. – The pictures made her vulnerable.

Is the comma after kontoene necessary?

Yes, it is standard and natural here.

Etter å ha blokkert de uærlige kontoene, slettet hun …

The part Etter å ha blokkert de uærlige kontoene is an initial adverbial phrase (a kind of subordinate element giving time information). In Norwegian written style, you normally put a comma after such an initial phrase when the main clause follows:

Etter middagen, gikk vi en tur.
Da hun kom hjem, ringte hun moren sin.
Etter å ha blokkert de uærlige kontoene, slettet hun flere gamle bilder.

So keeping the comma is recommended and looks correct and natural.