Efter att vi hade återvunnit burkarna och plasten kändes förrådet mycket tommare.

Efter att means after and introduces a clause describing something that happened earlier.

• Efter att vi hade återvunnit burkarna och plasten = After we had recycled the cans and the plastic

In Swedish, efter att is a very common way to introduce a completed action that happened before the main event in the sentence.

You may also sometimes see just efter + noun phrase, for example:

• Efter återvinningen = After the recycling
• Efter jobbet = After work

But here, because there is a full clause with a subject and verb (vi hade återvunnit), efter att is used.

Hade återvunnit is the past perfect tense, which corresponds to English had recycled.

It is formed with:

• hade = had
• återvunnit = the supine form of återvinna

So:

• vi hade återvunnit = we had recycled

This tense is used because that action happened before the main past event:

• first: we recycled the cans and plastic
• then: the storage room felt much emptier

If you said vi återvann, that would simply mean we recycled, but hade återvunnit makes the sequence of events clearer.

Återvunnit is the supine form of the verb återvinna.

In Swedish, the supine is used together with har or hade to make perfect tenses.

For återvinna, the main forms are:

• infinitive: återvinna = to recycle
• present: återvinner = recycle / is recycling
• past: återvann = recycled
• supine: återvunnit = recycled, in forms like har återvunnit or hade återvunnit

So in this sentence:

• hade återvunnit = had recycled

Those are the definite forms:

• burkarna = the cans
• plasten = the plastic

Swedish usually adds definiteness as a suffix to the noun:

• burk = a can
• burkar = cans
• burkarna = the cans

And:

• plast = plastic
• plasten = the plastic

In this sentence, the speaker is referring to specific cans and plastic that were in the storage room, so the definite form sounds natural.

Swedish often uses plasten in a very natural way for the plastic when talking about plastic items or plastic material in a specific situation.

Here, burkarna och plasten means something like:

• the cans and the plastic
• or more naturally in context, the cans and plastic

Even though plastic is uncountable in English, Swedish can still use the definite singular plasten when referring to the specific plastic that was there.

This is because Swedish follows the V2 rule in main clauses: the finite verb usually comes in the second position.

The sentence begins with a fronted time clause:

• Efter att vi hade återvunnit burkarna och plasten

After that, the main clause starts. Since the first position is already occupied by the whole Efter att... clause, the finite verb must come next:

• kändes

and then the subject:

• förrådet

So the structure is:

• Efter att...
  • kändes
    • förrådet
      • mycket tommare

This is very typical Swedish word order.

Compare:

• Förrådet kändes mycket tommare.
• Efter att vi hade återvunnit burkarna och plasten kändes förrådet mycket tommare.

Both are correct, but when the sentence starts with that long clause, the verb moves before the subject in the main clause.

Kändes is the past tense of kännas, which means to feel or to seem.

Here:

• förrådet kändes mycket tommare = the storage room felt much emptier

This does not mean the storage room literally has feelings. It means it seemed or felt emptier from the speaker’s point of view.

Useful forms:

• kännas = to feel, to seem
• känns = feels
• kändes = felt

Examples:

• Det känns bra. = It feels good.
• Rummet kändes kallt. = The room felt cold.

Förrådet is the definite form of förråd, which means something like storage room, storeroom, or storage space.

• ett förråd = a storage room
• förrådet = the storage room

The definite form is used because the speaker is referring to a specific storage room already known from the situation.

Tommare is the comparative form of tom:

• tom = empty
• tommare = emptier

Mycket means much here, so:

• mycket tommare = much emptier

This works very much like English:

• empty
• emptier
• much emptier

So the sentence is saying the storage room did not just feel emptier, but a lot emptier.

That is just how the comparative form of tom is spelled.

• tom = empty
• tommare = emptier
• tommast = emptiest

The doubled consonant is part of the normal spelling pattern here. It is something you mostly just learn as part of the adjective’s forms.

Yes. A very literal translation would be:

• After we had recycled the cans and the plastic, the storage room felt much emptier.

But more natural English versions could be:

• After we had taken the cans and plastic to recycling, the storage room felt much emptier.
• Once we had recycled the cans and plastic, the storage room felt much emptier.

That is because återvinna often means recycle, but in context it can also suggest taking items away for recycling.

If efter is followed by a full clause with a subject and verb, then att is normally used:

• Efter att vi hade återvunnit...

If efter is followed just by a noun or noun phrase, then there is no att:

• Efter återvinningen
• Efter jobbet
• Efter maten

So in this sentence, because we have a clause (vi hade återvunnit...), att is the natural choice.

Yes:

• Efter = after
• att = that / marks the clause here as part of after
• vi = we
• hade = had
• återvunnit = recycled
• burkarna = the cans
• och = and
• plasten = the plastic
• kändes = felt
• förrådet = the storage room
• mycket = much
• tommare = emptier

A natural full rendering is:

• After we had recycled the cans and the plastic, the storage room felt much emptier.