There are no rules in English that teach us whether we can or can’t start sentences with particular words. Take “before” as an example. We can start a sentence with it for a few reasons, and this article will explore how to do it effectively.
You can start a sentence with “before” when using it as a conjunction to connect two clauses, as a preposition to talk about something that happened in front of you, or as an adverb. It’s common to use all three of these forms in writing.
To help you understand more about what each form means, you can refer to the following:
- Conjunction: Before seeing my father again, I had to get him a gift.
- Preposition: Before my eyes, there appeared a man with no name.
- Adverb: Before, I found it difficult to believe in any of this nonsense!
All of these forms are correct when starting a sentence with “before.”
What Does “Before” Mean At The Beginning Of A Sentence?
It might help to go over a little bit more with each meaning. That way, you’ll have a better understanding of what “before” means.
“Before” means that something happens before another thing when used as a conjunction. As a preposition, it means that something happened in front of someone. As an adverb, it refers to something that wasn’t the case once but is the case now.
We can use “before” with these three common definitions. Each variation comes with slightly different grammatical rules that we need to understand and follow.
Examples Of How To Use “Before” At The Beginning Of A Sentence
To help you understand the rules we can use, we’ll split this part into sections. Since each form uses different rules, you might want to pay attention to how the grammar works in each case.
Conjunction
- Before I could go to bed, I had to check my closet for monsters.
- Before naming me godfather, they had a long conversation with me about my life goals.
- Before there were people, there were dinosaurs.
“Before” as a conjunction works to introduce something that happened prior to another event.
When using “before” in this way, we set up a dependent clause. When starting a sentence with a dependent clause, we need to make sure to include the comma at the end of the clause.
It’s also possible to switch the positions of the clauses:
- Before I could tell her, I had to ask permission.
- I had to ask permission before I could tell her.
Preposition
- Before me, there was a man who nobody knew.
- Before my eyes, he started to do something I never thought I’d see!
- Before I stood my superior.
“Before” as a preposition usually means that something happened in front of someone.
Usually, we include a comma after the prepositional phrase has ended to indicate the start of a new clause. However, we don’t use commas when the following word is a verb (like in example 3).
Adverb
- Before, I wasn’t too happy with the treatment of my people.
- Before, there was much to do.
- Before, I never knew how much I cared for school.
“Before” as an adverb works to introduce an argument or idea that didn’t exist at one point in the past. Usually, someone has come up with this idea recently.
With the adverb form, we always place a comma directly after “before.” There are no exceptions to this rule when starting a sentence with “before.”
Where Should I Place The Comma When Using “Before” At The Beginning Of A Sentence?
The previous section covered a lot of the punctuation rules you need to worry about when starting a sentence with “before.” However, to reiterate and help you understand how to punctuate it, we’ll go over it once more.
You should place a comma after the dependent clause when using “before” as a conjunction. You should place a comma after the prepositional phrase when using “before” as a preposition. You should place a comma directly after “before” when used as an adverb.
The rules vary based on the style we use, but if you look at the following, you might have more of an understanding.
- Correct: Before he could leave, I made him sign the contract.
- Incorrect: Before he could leave I made him sign the contract.
- Correct: Before my eyes, there appeared a man with no face!
- Incorrect: Before my eyes there appeared a man with no face!
- Correct: Before, I didn’t know how to care for her.
- Incorrect: Before I didn’t know how to care for her.
Alternatives To Starting A Sentence With “Before”
Some synonyms might help you to understand “before” a little better. Take your pick from these, as they all start sentences in similar ways.
- Prior to
- Previously
- In front of
- Ahead of
Can You End A Sentence With “Before”?
When using “before” as an adverb, we don’t just have to place it at the beginning of a sentence.
You can end a sentence with “before” as an adverb. We do this by taking the adverb and placing it at the end of the sentence to show that something was once believed but is no longer the case now.
It works the same as starting a sentence with “before” as an adverb; we simply place it at the end instead:
- Before, I didn’t know how to handle myself.
- I didn’t know how to handle myself before.
How Do You Use “Before” In The Middle Of A Sentence?
You can also place “before” in the middle of a sentence in most cases.
“Before” works in the middle of a sentence when talking about something that happened “before” another thing. It almost always refers to the chronological order of two or more events.
- The solar eclipse happened long before any of us knew what it was.
- She got here before you.
- I am standing before you and pleading for my life!
The comma rules are left out when placing “before” in the middle of a sentence. We do not need commas on either side of the word, and there are no dependent clauses set up with it that we need to worry about either.
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Unit 9.2
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Conjunctions are words that function as a link between clauses in sentences.
Before is used as a conjunction used to refer to the order of actions in a sentence.
Before connects clauses in a sentence and belongs to the conjunctions of time.
It can have two different positions:
Before + clause 1 + , + clause 2;
Clause 1 + before + clause 2.
NOTE: When we talk about future events, we should use the present tense after before.
- Before you set the table, get the plates out.
- Before you start cooking, wash the pumpkin.
- Before they come back home, they will buy some peas.
- Fix your hair before you go out.
- Talk to her before it’s too late.
- Let’s eat before we go.
We use before to refer to the order of actions. It indicates that the clause it introduces happens later than the other clause.
We can use before as a conjunction to refer to the order of actions in a sentence.
We start with the word before followed by a clause, a comma and another clause. We can also start with a clause followed by the word before and another clause (we do not use a comma here).
For example:
— “Before you eat it, wash the fruit.” / “Wash the fruit before you eat it.” = First you need to wash the fruit and then eat it.
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Before example sentence. The sentences below are ordered by length from shorter and easier to longer and more complex. They use before in a sentence, providing visitors a sentence for before.
- Order it before you go. (8)
- I have had my heroes before. (10)
- She kneeled down before him. (12)
- A landscape appeared before him. (12)
- This had happened the year before. (4)
- I bet you used to enjoy life, before. (8)
- Was that in the office, before you ran out? (8)
- Then stood before his vision that hard son. (10)
- As Laxley turned away, Evan stood before him. (10)
- Or they would have dragged her before a magistrate. (10)
- I have never been reduced to a similar distress before. (9)
- The younger ones out before the elder ones are married! (4)
- Can I go and see him before he gives evidence to-morrow? (8)
- But almost before the words had left his lips he felt dismay. (8)
- Long before it had taken place my opinion of you was decided. (4)
- One must be hard pressed before committing these indelicacies. (8)
- Verrian rose awkwardly and stood a long moment before his chair. (9)
- Her heart thanked him for appearing so handsome before her friends. (10)
- Before I put this amendment to the Board, I have one more word to say. (8)
- But he reached his cab, and got in before Soames had turned the corner. (8)
- His first visit to America was in 1891, when he carried all before him. (3)
- That was done, and it had to be done; it ought to have been done before. (10)
- I did not know before, that I had two daughters on the brink of matrimony. (4)
- Quick natures run out to calamity in any little shadow of it flung before. (10)
- He had met with them in a little perplexity, which must be laid before Emma. (4)
- I had it a night or two before we left home, in the Madison Square Roof Garden. (9)
- Even before she married, how many had tried for her love, and gone away unhappy! (8)
- My course of probation was severe and long before she allowed her heart to speak. (10)
- If I had to plead before you for more than manly consideration, I could touch you. (10)
- They had looked forward and arranged everything before the others began to reflect. (4)
- Nor is the Publisher to blame; for the Publisher will publish what is set before him. (8)
- I must be certain that he loves me and that I could make him happy, before I consent. (18)
- There rose up before her the memory of the man who had kissed her arm at the first ball. (8)
- A dyke had to be taken, some heavy fallows crossed, and the way was straight before him. (10)
- And why was each desirous of showing his manhood in combat before an eminent peacemaker? (10)
- From the first day of his struggle for success there came before his eyes the man Graves. (13)
- Toward the end of September Westover spent the night before he went back to town with them. (9)
- It was a long time before she became at all reconciled to the idea of so unsuitable a match. (4)
- Jenny for a touching French song of a beau chevalier she sang before Ottilia in my absence. (10)
- They return friendly as before, whether they have done the Geographical Society a service or not. (10)
- He lifted his head as if he had not heard the American, and stared at him a moment before he spoke. (9)
- I fell into a deep reverie upon my past life, and the prospects which I now felt were opening before me. (6)
- The General discomposed his daughter by offering to accompany her on her morning ride before breakfast. (10)
- She held fast to his nerveless hand, and kneeling before him, listened for his long reluctant breathing. (10)
- George had seated himself again and was staring before him; he looked big and lonely in those black clothes. (8)
- Patrick was endeavouring to spare his brother a mention of Earlsfont before they had private talk together. (10)
- Moreover, the Graves Construction Company was no longer the weak enterprise that it had been five years before. (13)
- The young man silently appealed to Grace, who darkened angrily, and before he could speak Mrs. Maynard interposed. (9)
- Mrs. Lander will probably have time enough to change her will as well as her mind several times yet before she dies. (9)
- Tired of standing up before a sea of dull faces, seeing the blockheads knock their silly hands one against the other! (8)
- She had been used before to feel that he could not be always quite sincere, but now she saw insincerity in everything. (4)
- Just before the fall, the whole drama of the unfolding of that secret was brilliant to his eyes as a scene on a stage. (10)
- Before that time his affairs had languished, and the currents of business instead of flowing had become stagnant pools. (10)
- But Venetia had barely mounted the first bank of steps before she heard her name called in a loud voice from the street. (13)
- In our dealings with each other we should be guided by the Golden Rule, as I was saying to Mrs. Lapham before you came in. (9)
- He made pretexts to keep from returning at once to his sisters, and it was nearly half an hour before he went down to them. (9)
- Before that time, although writers on music made reference to the instruments in use, they did not give detailed descriptions. (3)
- But before he could really carry out this dangerous scheme the English admiral once more showed his face in the St. Lawrence. (19)
- How, then, if such were the case, would she be showing emotion thus deep, while he stood before her with perfect self-command? (22)
- He had not reached Hamilton Terrace before he changed his mind, and hailing a cab, gave the driver an address in Wistaria Avenue. (8)
- She said that she had never heard of anyone travelling second class before, and she assured him that they never did it in America. (9)
- The dinner was not concluded before I had arranged that Evan should resume (gratuitously, you know) his post of secretary to him. (10)
- Barely half a dozen words, before the sitting to that niggard restoration, had informed Carinthia of the step taken by her brother. (10)
- He found himself floundering about in the deep sand, wide of the path; he got back to it, and reached the boat just before she started. (9)
- They had been speaking of it as they walked about Highbury the day before, and Frank Churchill had most earnestly lamented her absence. (4)
- Before he could reach the fortress, the commandant he had left there had summoned all the loyal citizens together and prepared for battle. (19)
- Her cheeks burned, quick sighs escaped her lips; she read the letter again, but before getting to the end could not see the words for mist. (8)
- She fluttered before him in either aspect; and another perplexity now was to distinguish within himself which was the aspect he preferred. (10)
- It was a most fortunate accident as it diverted the attention of Sophia from the melancholy reflections which she had been before indulging. (4)
- She was dressed, and sat before the glass, smoothing her hair, and applying the contents of a pot of cold cream to her forehead between-whiles. (10)
- The chromatic tones were added gradually, the breadth of the keys being correspondingly reduced as the increased number of keys occupied the same space as before. (3)
Also see sentences for: antecedent, previous, prior.
Glad you visited this page with a sentence for before. Now that you’ve seen how to use before in a sentence hope you might explore the rest of this educational reference site Sentencefor.com to see many other example sentences which provide word usage information.
More Sentence Examples
Select First Letter
Before is a preposition, an adverb and a conjunction. Before means earlier than the time or event mentioned:
Can you call me back before 5 pm, please?
I met her just before she left.
Warning:
In writing, when we refer back to something that we have already written, we use above not before:
As the graph above shows, the rate of inflation has risen by 15%.
Before as a preposition
We use before most commonly with noun phrases to refer to timed events:
I like to go for a run before breakfast.
You can check in online but you have to do it at least four hours before your flight.
We use before to refer to place, especially when it is seen as part of a journey or as part of a sequence of events in time:
Get off the bus just before Euston Station.
Just before the end of the poem, there is a line where the poet expresses his deepest fears.
Before, by, till, until
If you have to do something before a certain point in time, then when that point arrives, the action must already be completed:
I need to have the letter before Friday. (Friday is too late. I need it in advance of Friday.)
If you have to do something by a certain point in time, then that time is the last moment at which the action can be completed:
Can we finish this meeting by 5 pm. I have to get to the station by 5.30 pm. (5 pm is the latest that I want the meeting to finish and 5.30 pm is the latest that I can arrive at the station.)
If something is done or happens till or until a point in time, it happens over a duration of time, starting before that time and continuing up to that point:
[out-of-office auto-reply message on an email]
I’ll be out of the office until 17th May. I will reply to your email after that date. (I will be back on 17 May, but not before.)
Compare
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I’ll be there up to five o’clock, but not after. |
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I may call you before five o’clock but I will call you no later than five o’clock. |
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I’ll be there earlier than dinner time. |
Before as an adverb
Before often comes after nouns such as day, morning, night, week, month, year to refer to the previous day, morning, etc.:
Two people were ill at work yesterday and three people the day before!
A:
Did you graduate in 1989?
B:
No, actually, I finished college the year before.
Warning:
When we refer to a period of time that is completed and goes from a point in the past up to now, we use ago, not before:
A:
When was your birthday?
B:
It was three weeks ago.
Before as an adjunct
We use before to connect earlier events to the moment of speaking or to a point of time in the past:
I’m so looking forward to the trip. I haven’t been to Latin America before. (up to the moment of speaking)
I introduced Tom to Olivia last night. They hadn’t met before. (up to that point in the past)
Before as a conjunction
We use before as a subordinating conjunction. We commonly use before with the past simple tense. It suggests that the second event happened soon after the first one. The before clause, which indicates the second action, can be at the end or at the beginning of the sentence:
Before she left, she gave everyone a present.
She gave everyone a present before she left.
Before with present tenses
When we use before in clauses in the present tense, the clause can refer to the future:
Before I go to work, I jog for at least an hour.
Not: Before I will go to work …
Before with past tenses
We sometimes use before clauses in a variety of tenses to say that the action or event in the before clause did not or may not happen:
Before I had a chance to thank him, he’d gone.
You’re interrupting her before she has even spoken.
Before he had finished his training, he was sacked.
We should stop shopping now before we spend all our money.
Before with —ing
A non-finite clause with before + ing-form is more formal:
Before bringing the milk to the boil, add the egg. (more formal than Before you bring …)
Just before, immediately before
We can use adverbs such as just, immediately, shortly and long, and expressions involving words such as days, weeks, months, years in front of before:
We got home just before it rained.
The deadline for the essay was 5 pm. I got mine in shortly before five o’clock but Lily had hers in days before the deadline.
Beforehand
We can use beforehand as an alternative to before as an adverb, especially when the reference to time is less specific.
Spoken English:
Beforehand is more common in informal speaking than in writing:
I love singing but I always get so nervous beforehand.
In front of beforehand, we can put adverbs such as immediately, just and shortly, and other time expressions such as days, weeks, months, years:
Months beforehand, Dominic had bought five tickets for the concert.
Other uses of before
Before meaning ‘in front of’
We use before meaning ‘in front of’ in more formal contexts:
Brian was twenty years old. He had his whole life before him.
The Prime Minister went before the people to tell them that he was going to resign.
Before long meaning ‘after a short time’
Especially in writing, we use before long to mean ‘after a short time’:
They’ll marry before long, and then you’ll have more grandsons than you can count.
Before: typical errors
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We use above not before when we refer back to something we have already written:
As stated above, there are four key findings from the study.
Not: As stated before, there are …
-
When we refer to a period of time that is completed and which goes from a point in the past up to now, we use ago, not before:
A:
When did you first meet?
B:
Ten years ago when we were in college.
Not: Ten years before when …
-
#1
From grammar books, we learn that if a sentence contains two different times and words like «after», «before», «when», «once», etc, we need to use different tenses to specify the time difference. Say, for examples:
1) «I had taken a rest before I studied.»
2) «I became a doctor after I had acquired the certificate.»
From the 1) example, we use PAST TENSE for «study» and PAST PERFECT for «take» because studying happened later than taking the rest. Likewise, in the 2) example, «becoming a doctor» happens after getting the cert, so we use past tense for «become» and PAST PERFECT for «acquire», which happened earlier.
This sort of chronological order also applies on other tenses, and the whole order is: (earliest) PAST PERFECT>PAST>PRESENT PERFECT> PRESENT> FUTURE (latest).
Just a simple question: is it really NECESSARY to use two tenses in a sentence when it contains two activities of two different times (which are separated by words like «before», «after», «once», «when», etc.) Cause sometimes i do see people simply use the same tense for both two activities.
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#2
…
Just a simple question: is it really NECESSARY to use two tenses in a sentence when it contains two activities of two different times (which are separated by words like «before», «after», «once», «when», etc.)
…
No.
In fact, where the sequence of events is clear — as it usually is when you have used these time-sequence words — it is quite normal, and correct, to use the same tense for two activities.
So:
I took a rest before I studied.
I became a doctor after I acquired the certificate.
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#3
Thanks so much.
Do you mean both usages (1 tense & 2 tenses) are correct for these kinds of sentence? Or under what specific conditions should we use 2 tenses?
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#4
Thanks so much.
Do you mean both usages (1 tense & 2 tenses) are correct for these kinds of sentence? Or under what specific conditions should we use 2 tenses?
Yes, I think both versions of these particular sentences are correct. I think that native English speakers are less concerned about using tense to mark time sequence than natives of other languages.
That is not to say that the two sentences below are identical in meaning or usage.
1. I had taken a rest before I studied.
2. I took a rest before I studied.
(1) The different tense usage places the rest a little distant from the studying — as if the rest and the studying were quite independent.
(2) Using the same tense suggests that rest and studying were connected. Perhaps that you knew you were tired and deliberately rested before studying.
Also, the form in (2) can be used in relation to habitual action. When I was working for my finals I took a rest before I studied. (1) cannot be used in that way.
The second sentence
3. I became a doctor after I had acquired the certificate.
4. I became a doctor after I acquired the certificate.
Again, using different tenses in (3) separates becoming a doctor from acquiring the certificate.
In (4), it seems that acquiring the certificate was essential to becoming a doctor.
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#5
i totally get your meaning!
thanks so much for your detailed answer
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#6
1)The sun has already set before I get home everyday
2)The sun sets before I get home.
in first sentence present perfect is used with ‘Before’
in second sentence ‘present simple’ is used with ‘Before’ for present routine meaning
Are these sentences correct with ‘before’ with tenses ?
Present perfect or simple present are both ok with ‘before’ for present routines.