Expressing "before" in general with "yiqian"
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Level
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Similar to
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Used for
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Keywords
To talk about things that previously occurred, 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. To make 以前 (yǐqián) easier to understand, it can be used similarly to the English word, "before."
Structure
One way to use 以前 (yǐqián) 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
You can also move 以前 (yǐqián) to right after the subject, and it's also correct.
Subject + 以前 + 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.
- 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"
