After (efter att)

After: Efter att

When you want to describe an event that happens after another event, you can use the subordinating conjunction efter att (after).

Because efter att explicitly connects two events occurring at different times, Swedish strictly requires tense sequencing. The action in the efter att clause must be in a "completed" tense relative to the main clause.

Present and Present Perfect

If the action in the main clause takes place in the present tense, the action in the efter att clause must have already happened. Therefore, it takes the present perfect tense (har + supine verb).

Past and Past Perfect

Similarly, if the main action took place in the past (simple past), the event in the efter att clause happened even further back in time. In this case, the efter att clause must use the past perfect tense (hade + supine verb).

Shifting Focus with the V2 Rule

Like most subordinate clauses, an efter att clause can be placed at the very beginning of the sentence to shift the emphasis to the timeline.

Remember the golden V2 (verb-second) rule: when the entire sentence begins with a subordinate clause, that clause counts as the first block of information. The main clause that immediately follows must undergo inversion, starting directly with its conjugated verb.

Here is how that looks with a present tense main clause:

And here is how the V2 rule applies when dealing with past tense actions: