How does offset in phrases work?

Help, Support & Bugs Beginners Questions - Renoise
1

Manual quote :

Offset: Different keys will cause the phrase to begin playing from
different lines (lower keys from earlier in the phrase, higher keys from
later).

Can we have more precision about “earlier” and “later” ? What does happen when C-4, or C-5 is played ? How to play the second half of the phrase ?

Thanks.