nihongo wo benkyou shitai

The great thing about revision is that I occasionally come across a grammatical point that I actually remember! Today we will cover one of those rare beasts!

In English, the structure of a 'before' sentence is very straightforward. Here's an example:

1. Before I go to work I shall go to the post office.
2. I shall go to the post office before going to work.

Two ways to phrase the same sentence? Oh yes, for once English is more complex than Japanese where there is only one way to structure a 'before' sentence. And that is:

Before [clause A], [clause B]

This implies that the statement in clause B occurred before clause A.
As long as you can re-write your sentence into this format, then you can express it in Japanese.
So, in our two examples above, sentence 1 is already in the right format. Let's 訳す!

English: Before I go to work I shall go to the post office.
Jenglish: [work][go][before][post office][go]
日本語：　　会社に行く前に郵便局に行くつもりです。

Notice how I craftily snuck a つもりです in there. Why? Well, because I am expressing an intent to do something. Dead impressed with myself on that one!

English: Before dinner wash your hands!
Jenglish: [dinner][before][hands][wash+polite request]
日本語：　　晩ご飯の前に手を洗ってなさい。

This is a good example sentence. Notice how the 'before' action is simply a noun? In this case, I've used の前に instead of just 前に. Also, as this sentence carries an implication of being told to do something, I've used ーてなさい.

English: Before the exam I must learn 200 new kanji.
Jenglish: [exam][before][new kanji][200][learn+must]
日本語：　　試験の前に新しい漢字を２００字を習わなければいけません。

I'm happy with that. I actually know some Japanese!

またね。。。