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Я соскучился по бабушке, поэтому позвонил ей вечером.

Я соскучился по бабушке, поэтому позвонил ей вечером.
I missed my grandmother, so I called her in the evening.

Breakdown of Я соскучился по бабушке, поэтому позвонил ей вечером.

я
I
бабушка
the grandmother
вечером
in the evening
позвонить
to call
ей
her
поэтому
so/therefore
соскучиться по
to miss
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Questions & Answers about Я соскучился по бабушке, поэтому позвонил ей вечером.

Why is соскучился in the past tense, and what does it literally mean?

Соскучился is the past tense of the perfective verb соскучиться. Literally it’s like to come to feel bored/lonely without someone, and in normal English translation it corresponds to I missed … / I started to miss ….
Because it’s past tense, Russian also encodes gender/number: соскучился = past masculine singular (I as a male speaker). If the speaker is female: я соскучилась.

Why does Russian say соскучиться по (with по) instead of using a direct object like English miss someone?

Russian doesn’t use соскучиться with a direct accusative object. The standard pattern is соскучиться по + dative (or скучать по + dative).
So по бабушке is required by the verb, even though English would say miss grandma directly.

Why is it по бабушке and not по бабушка / по бабушку?

Because по here governs the dative case.

  • Nominative: бабушка
  • Dative: бабушке
    So по бабушке = (I missed) grandma with the required dative form.
What’s the difference between соскучиться and скучать?

It’s mainly aspect and how the feeling is viewed:

  • скучать (imperfective) = to miss someone / to be missing someone (ongoing, habitual, repeated)
    • Я скучаю по бабушке. = I miss grandma (right now / in general).
  • соскучиться (perfective) = to start missing someone / to come to miss someone (the feeling arises as a completed change)
    • Я соскучился по бабушке. = I (ended up) missing grandma / I started to miss grandma.
Why is позвонил perfective? Could it be звонил?

позвонить / позвонил is perfective and usually means a single completed call (or the intention of one complete call).
звонить / звонил is imperfective and would focus on the process, repetition, or background action:

  • поэтому позвонил ей вечером = so I called her in the evening (one call, result).
  • поэтому звонил ей вечером = so I was calling her in the evening / I called her (as a repeated/ongoing activity, or emphasizing the process rather than the completion).
Why is ей used, and what case is it?

ей means to her and is the dative form of она. The verb позвонить takes a dative person: you call to someone in Russian.

  • позвонил ей = called her
    You could also use the noun: позвонил бабушке (also dative).
Could you say позвонил бабушке instead of позвонил ей? Why use the pronoun?

Yes, Я соскучился по бабушке, поэтому позвонил бабушке вечером is grammatically fine, but it repeats бабушке.
Using ей avoids repetition and sounds more natural in connected speech, like English …so I called her.

What does поэтому do here, and where does it normally go in the sentence?

поэтому means therefore / so / that’s why and links the reason to the result. It often appears:

  • after a comma, starting the second clause: …, поэтому …
  • or at the beginning: Поэтому я позвонил ей вечером.
    Word order can vary, but поэтому commonly introduces the consequence clause.
Why is there a comma before поэтому?

Because the sentence contains two clauses: 1) Я соскучился по бабушке
2) поэтому позвонил ей вечером
In Russian, when one clause leads into another (especially with connectors like поэтому), a comma is typically used to separate them.

Why is it вечером and not в вечер / в вечере? What case is вечером?

вечером is the instrumental form of вечер, used in a common time expression meaning in the evening. It functions like an adverbial of time:

  • утром (in the morning), днём (in the daytime), вечером (in the evening), ночью (at night)

You can also say вечером without any preposition; it’s the normal idiomatic way.

Does the word order matter here? Could I say Вечером я позвонил ей?

Yes, you can. Russian word order is flexible and is often used for emphasis:

  • …позвонил ей вечером = neutral, time placed at the end.
  • Вечером я позвонил ей = emphasizes evening (as the time frame). Both are correct; the meaning stays essentially the same.