Expressing "before" in general with "yiqian"

Revision as of 09:32, 31 May 2013 by Simingjie (talk | contribs)

Using "before" in Chinese is very simple.

Structure

To talk about things in the past "in general", you can use the word 以前 (yǐqián).

以前 + Subject + Verb + Object

You can use this structure to talk about actions that happened at some unspecified time in the past.

Examples

  • 以前,我 不 会 中文。Before, I could not speak Chinese.
  • 以前,我 不 喝 啤酒。Before, I didn't drink beer.
  • 以前,我 不 喜欢 电影。Before, I didn't like movies.

See also

Sources and further reading

Books

HSK3