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Grammar question: 先，了，and 再

I'm pretty sure that the 了 in the first example is there to indicate the completion of an action (calling on the phone) rather than a change in tense. Compare this sentence from a textbook: 你吃完了以后，来找我。nĭ chīwán le yĭhòu, lái zhăo wŏ. 'After you finish eating, come find me'. The action is in the future; the 了 refers to completion of the action. In your example, I don't think there's enough context to know if we're speaking about the past, present or future; but the 了 is referring to completion of the call.

It looks to me like there isn't much of a difference between the two sentences - they probably express the same thing slightly differently. However, my Chinese isn't good enough to absolutely say for sure (or even to be sure that your sentences are 100% correct). Hope that's of some help though.

...so the likeliest translation would be something like "first make the call, then go".

Thanks. It's just a phrase I copied out of the drills section of my textbook, so there really isn't any context.

They're likely something like:

1) first (make a) call (to completion), then go again. 2) first call, then go again.

The reason they're both "then go" and not "then went" is because 再 means "again" but only in regards to the future. If it was "then went again" it would be 又去了 with you4 meaning "again" in the past tense.

it's all about context. and again not just sticking with the simple "le means past tense" - it means "action completed" which CAN be past tense but doesn't NEED to be.