Efter att hon hade torkat bordet med en trasa, satte hon sig ner och kände sig lugn.

Efter att means after when it introduces a full clause.

• Efter
  • noun phrase: efter middagen = after dinner
• Efter att
  • clause: efter att hon hade torkat bordet = after she had wiped the table

In modern standard Swedish, if a full clause follows efter, you normally use att as well.

Hade torkat is the past perfect. It shows that this action happened before another action in the past.

Here the order is:

1. she wiped the table
2. she sat down and felt calm

So Swedish uses:

• hade torkat = had wiped
• satte / kände = simple past actions that happened after that

If you said Efter att hon torkade bordet..., it would sound less natural in standard Swedish for this kind of sequence.

Yes — torka can mean both dry and wipe, depending on context.

In this sentence, torkat bordet med en trasa clearly means wiped the table with a cloth.

Compare:

• torka bordet = wipe the table
• torka håret = dry the hair
• torka av bordet = wipe off the table

So the basic idea is connected to making something dry or cleaner by wiping.

Bordet is the definite form: the table.

• ett bord = a table
• bordet = the table

Swedish often uses the definite form when the thing is already known from the situation or context. Here, it is a specific table, not just any table.

Med en trasa means with a cloth.

• med = with
• en trasa = a cloth / a rag

The noun trasa is a common-gender noun, so it takes en in the indefinite singular.

If it were a specific cloth already known to the listener, you could say:

• med trasan = with the cloth

This is because of Swedish V2 word order in main clauses.

The sentence begins with a fronted element: the subordinate clause
Efter att hon hade torkat bordet med en trasa

When something comes first in a Swedish main clause, the finite verb must come in second position. So you get:

• Efter att ..., satte hon sig ner
• not Efter att ..., hon satte sig ner

This is very typical Swedish word order.

This is an important distinction:

• sitta = to sit, to be sitting
• sätta sig = to sit down, to take a seat

So:

• Hon satt ner would mean she was sitting down / seated
• Hon satte sig ner means she sat down

The verb sätta sig expresses the movement into a sitting position.

Ner means down, so it strengthens the idea of sitting down.

• sätta sig = sit down / seat oneself
• sätta sig ner = sit down

In many contexts, both work, but ner makes the downward motion more explicit and very natural in everyday Swedish.

Sig is the reflexive pronoun for the third person in Swedish. It is used when the subject and object refer to the same person.

So:

• hon satte sig ner = she sat herself down
• hon kände sig lugn = she felt calm

You do not use henne here, because henne would mean someone else is the object.

Compare:

• Hon tvättade sig. = She washed herself.
• Hon tvättade henne. = She washed her.

Because lugn is a predicative adjective that agrees with the subject.

Here the subject is hon, so the adjective takes the common singular form:

• hon är lugn
• hon kände sig lugn

Compare:

• barnet är lugnt = the child is calm
• de är lugna = they are calm

So:

• lugn = common singular
• lugnt = neuter singular
• lugna = plural

Because both verbs share the same subject.

• satte hon sig ner
• och kände sig lugn

This is completely normal in Swedish, just as in English:

• She sat down and felt calm

You could repeat hon, but it would usually sound unnecessary here.

Yes. That is also very natural.

• Efter att hon hade torkat bordet med en trasa, satte hon sig ner...
• Efter att ha torkat bordet med en trasa, satte hon sig ner...

The second version is more compact and means After wiping the table with a cloth, she sat down...

It works best when the person doing the action in both parts is the same person.

Not always strictly necessary, but it is acceptable and often helpful.

Swedish generally uses fewer commas than English, and many writers would also write:

Efter att hon hade torkat bordet med en trasa satte hon sig ner och kände sig lugn.

The comma here helps separate the long introductory clause from the main clause, so it improves readability.