Before a specific time with "yiqian"

Revision as of 09:22, 20 March 2013 by Guomubai (talk | contribs)

(diff) ← Older revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)

Level

A2 / HSK1 and HSK3
Level

A2
Level

HSK1, HSK3
Similar to
Similar to
- Expressing "before" and "after" with "zhiqian" and "zhihou" (HSK0)
- Structure of times (advanced) (HSK1, HSK3)
- Structure of times (basic) (HSK1, HSK3)
- Expressing "when" with "de shihou" (HSK2)
- Expressing "before" in general with "yiqian" (HSK3)
- Expressing "when" with "shi" (HSK3)
- Expressing "once" with "cengjing" (HSK5)
Used for

Referring to the past, Sequencing events in time, Expressing time and date
Keywords

以前, 以, 前

Chinese-grammar-wiki－yiqian.jpg

As well as talking about the past in general, you can use 以前 to talk about things that happened before a specific time. The structure for this is:

Contents

1 Structure
2 Examples
3 See also
4 Sources and further reading

Structure

Time + 以前， Subject + Verb + Object

The time can be a specific time, or an action.

Examples

上大学 以前，我不会写论文。
三点以前，我在咖啡店。
睡觉以前，你不能吃糖。
结婚以前，我很自由。

See also

Sources and further reading

Modern Mandarin Chinese Grammar: A Practical Guide (pp. 260-1) →buy
Boya Chinese Elementary Starter 2 (博雅汉语初经起步篇) (pp. 11-12) →buy

A2 grammar points

Retrieved from "https://resources.allsetlearning.com/gramwiki/?title=Before_a_specific_time_with_%22yiqian%22&oldid=12693"