Expressing "before" in general with "yiqian"
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Used for
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Keywords
Using "before" in Chinese is very simple. To talk about things in the past "in general", you can use the word 以前 (yǐqián). You can use this structure to talk about actions that happened at some unspecified time in the past.
Contents
以前 before the Subject
Structure
One way to use 以前 is to start the sentence with it. This is like starting off a sentence in English with "before..." or "in the past...."
以前，+ Subject + Verb + Object
Examples
- 以前 我 不 会 说 中文。Before, I could not speak Chinese.
- 以前 我 住 在 上海。Before, I lived in Shanghai.
- 以前 我 是 一 个 老师。Before, I was a teacher.
- 以前 我 不 喜欢 他。Before, I didn't like him.
- 以前 我 不 喜欢 电影。Before, I didn't like movies.
- 以前 我 没有 钱。Before, I didn't have any money.
- 以前 我 很 快乐。Before, I was very happy.
- 以前 我们 经常 聊天。Before, we often talked together.
- 以前 她 很 喜欢 笑。Before, she really liked laughing.
- 以前 我 很 爱 学习。Before, I really loved studying.
以前 after the Subject
For pretty much the exact same sentences as in the previous section, you can also move 以前 to right after the subject, and it's also correct.
Structure
Subject + 以前 + Verb + Object
Examples
- 我 以前 不 会 说 中文。Before, I could not speak Chinese.
- 我 以前 住 在 上海。Before, I lived in Shanghai.
- 我 以前 是 一 个 老师。Before, I was a teacher.
- 我 以前不 喜欢 他。Before, I didn't like him.
- 我 以前 不 喜欢 电影。Before, I didn't like movies.
- 我 以前 没有 钱。Before, I didn't have any money.
- 我 以前 很 快乐。Before, I was very happy.
- 我们 以前 经常 聊天。Before, we often talked together.
- 她 以前 很 喜欢 笑。Before, she really liked laughing.
- 我 以前 很 爱 学习。Before, I really loved studying.
See also
- In the future in general
- Before a specific time
- At the time when
- Before and after with "zhiqian" and "zhihou"
