Breakdown of Me llamó después de que se fueron los invitados.
llamar
to call
me
to me / myself (reflexive) / me (direct object)
se
himself / herself / themselves (reflexive)
el invitado
the guest
irse
to leave, to go away
después de que
after (conjunction)
Questions & Answers about Me llamó después de que se fueron los invitados.
Why is fueron in the indicative mood here instead of the subjunctive?
The phrase después de que (after) takes the indicative mood (like fueron) when talking about an action that has already happened. You only use the subjunctive with después de que when referring to a future event that hasn't happened yet, such as 'She will call me after the guests leave' (después de que se vayan).
How can you tell if fueron means 'they went', 'they were', or 'they left'?
Why is the subject (los invitados) placed after the verb (se fueron)?
In Spanish, it is very common to place the subject after the verb in a subordinate clause (the part of the sentence starting with que). This flipped word order is especially popular with verbs of motion, arrival, or departure, like irse. Saying después de que los invitados se fueron is also grammatically correct, but putting the verb first sounds more natural to a native speaker.
How do we know llamó means 'she called' if there is no ella in the sentence?
The verb llamó is the third-person singular past tense form, which covers 'he', 'she', 'it', or 'you (formal)'. Spanish frequently drops subject pronouns like ella when the surrounding context makes it clear who is performing the action. Because we only have this single sentence, the translation assumes 'she' based on an outside context, but it could just as easily mean 'he called me'.
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