Hon sa att hon skulle ringa senare.

Both are correct past-tense forms of säga (to say).

• sa is very common in everyday Swedish
• sade is also correct, and can sound a bit more formal or traditional

So:

• Hon sa att ...
• Hon sade att ...

both mean the same thing.

Here, att means that.

It introduces a subordinate clause:

• Hon sa = she said
• att hon skulle ringa senare = that she would call later

In English, that is often optional, and Swedish can sometimes omit att too in casual speech:

• Hon sa hon skulle ringa senare

But in normal written Swedish, keeping att is very common and usually safest for learners.

Skulle + infinitive is used here to express future seen from a past point in time. This is often called future in the past.

So if someone said something in the past about a later action, Swedish often uses:

• skulle ringa = would call

That matches English very closely here.

Compare:

• Hon säger att hon ska ringa senare = she says that she is going to call later
• Hon sa att hon skulle ringa senare = she said that she would call later

Because after modal verbs like skulle, Swedish normally uses the bare infinitive.

So you say:

• skulle ringa
• kan ringa
• vill ringa
• måste ringa

not:

• skulle att ringa

This is similar to English would call, not would to call.

Because att hon skulle ringa senare is a subordinate clause, and Swedish word order changes in subordinate clauses.

In a main clause, Swedish usually follows V2 word order, where the finite verb comes early:

• Hon sa ...

But in a subordinate clause introduced by att, the subject usually comes before the finite verb:

• att hon skulle ringa senare

So:

• hon = subject
• skulle = finite verb

This is normal subordinate-clause order in Swedish.

No, not in normal Swedish.

You need the subject of the second clause:

• Hon sa att hon skulle ringa senare.

You cannot normally say:

• Hon sa att skulle ringa senare.

The subordinate clause needs its own subject, just like English needs she in She said that she would call later.

Not necessarily.

Grammatically, the two hon words could refer to:

• the same woman/girl
• two different female people

Usually, without extra context, people will assume they are the same person. But context decides.

For example, this sentence could mean:

• A woman said that she herself would call later
• A woman said that another woman would call later

If Swedish needs to make the difference clearer, the speaker would usually add names or more context.

Because ska and skulle do different jobs here.

• ska is used for present/future from the speaker’s current viewpoint
• skulle is used when the statement is reported from a past viewpoint

Compare:

• Hon säger att hon ska ringa senare.
• Hon sa att hon skulle ringa senare.

If the first verb is in the past (sa), Swedish often shifts ska to skulle in reported speech, much like English will becomes would.

Senare means later.

In this sentence, it means that the call would happen at some point after the time being talked about.

It is related to:

• sen = late / later, depending on context
• senare = later
• senast = latest / at the latest

So senare is the natural word here for later.

Sometimes, especially in speech, you may hear sen in similar contexts:

• Hon sa att hon skulle ringa sen.

This is common and natural in spoken Swedish.

But senare is a bit more explicit and often feels slightly more neutral or written. For learners, senare is a very safe choice.

It is neutral, everyday Swedish.

Nothing in it is especially formal or especially slangy. The only small point is that sa is a very common everyday form, while sade can feel a bit more formal or literary.

So overall, this is a perfectly normal standard sentence.

In careful pronunciation, skulle is roughly SKU-lleh, but in everyday speech it is often reduced.

Learners often notice that:

• the u is not like English oo
• the word can sound shorter and less clearly pronounced than expected

In many accents, it may sound something like skulle with a very weak final vowel. The exact pronunciation varies a bit by region and speaking speed, so it is worth listening to native audio.

It breaks down like this:

• Hon = subject
• sa = finite verb in the past
• att = subordinator
• hon = subject of the subordinate clause
• skulle = finite verb in the subordinate clause
• ringa = infinitive
• senare = adverb

So the pattern is:

subject + past verb + att + subject + skulle + infinitive + adverb

That is a very common Swedish pattern for reported speech.