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before: conjunction

Grammar

before + clause, + clause

Grammar

clause + before + clause

Use and position​

Before and its clause can come either before the main clause (often with a comma) or after. Putting it at the end can give it more importance in information structure (see here).

  • Before I have breakfast, I go for a walk.
  • I go for a walk before I have breakfast.

Note the time relations: in both cases the speaker goes for a walk first and then has breakfast. Compare:

  • I have breakfast before I go for a walk. (The speaker has breakfast first.)

Present or present perfect tense with future meaning​

With before, we use a present or present perfect tense if the meaning is future (see here).

  • I’ll telephone you before I come. (not … before I will come.)
  • We can’t leave before the speeches have finished.

Perfect tenses​

In clauses with before, we often use present perfect and past perfect tenses to emphasise the idea of completion.

  • You can’t go home before I’ve signed the report. (= … before the moment when I have completed the report.)
  • He went out before I had finished my sentence. (= … before the moment when I had completed my sentence.)

(Note that in sentences like the last, a past perfect tense can refer to a time later than the action of the main verb. This is unusual.)

Before things that don’t happen​

We sometimes use before to talk about things that don’t happen (because something stops them).

  • We’d better get out of here before your father catches us.
  • She left before I could ask for her phone number.

before …ing​

In a formal style, we often use the structure before + -ing.

  • Please turn out all the lights before leaving the office.
  • Before beginning the book, she spent five years on research.
note

For before as an adverb and preposition, (see here).

For before and ever, (see here).