Before or After

There are important events in a person’s life or in society that mark a before-and-after because the situations will be different from what they used to be, meaning things will no longer be the same. This can be good or bad. Either way, there are many students who confuse the meaning and usage of before and after.

First and foremost, let’s clear up the mix-up in meaning. It might seem obvious but students say before when they should say after and vice versa. Basically, before is earlier than another action and after is later than another action. Look:

I take a shower before I have breakfast. 

(first shower, then breakfast)

I take a shower after I have breakfast. 

(first breakfast, then shower)

Now here’s the really confusing part. At the beginning of a phrase, pausing or not pausing after these words changes the meaning of a phrase. When writing, the pause is represented by a comma ( , ). See if you can see the differences in the two pairs of sentences below:

Before, I take a shower. Then, I have breakfast.

Before I take a shower, I have breakfast.

With a comma / pause, the action directly after before occurs earlier. Without a comma / pause, the action directly after before occurs later.

I have breakfast. After, I take a shower.

After I take a shower, I have breakfast.

With a comma / pause, the action directly after after occurs later. Without a comma / pause, the action directly after after occurs earlier.

So as you can see, pausing has the opposite meaning of pausing. In other words:

Before I take a shower, I have breakfast. = After, I take a shower.

(first breakfast, then shower)

After I take a shower, I have breakfast. = Before, I take a shower.

(first shower, then breakfast)

I hope you now realize the importance of pausing while speaking.