"Il faut essuyer tes pieds avant d'entrer."
Translation:You must wipe your feet before entering.
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There are three cases for deciding whether to use:
avant
avant de
avant que
case 1
when avant is used as a preposition joining two clauses with different subjects and identical actions then the construct is avant + noun phrase
examples
Les élèves entrent en classe avant le professeur. - The students enter the classroom before the teacher
Il sort dans la cour avant ses camarades.
- He goes into the yard before his friends
Les enfants se couchent toujours avant leurs parents.
- The children always go to bed before their parents
case 2
when avant is used as a preposition joining two clauses with identical subjects and different actions then the construct is avant de + infinitive
examples
Il fait sa toilette avant de prendre son petit déjeuner. - He has a wash before having breakfast.
Jacques révise le cours avant de faire le test. - Jack revises the course before taking the test
L'athlète fait un dernier effort avant d' atteindre la ligne d'arrivée. - The athlete makes a final effort before reaching the finish line
Normalement un bon élève prépare la leçon avant d' aller en classe. - Normally a good student prepares the lesson before going to class
il écoute d'abord le professeur avant d' essayer d'y répondre. - He first listens to the teacher before attempting to respond.
Tu dois d'abord essayer de comprendre la question avant d' y répondre. - You must first try to understand the question before answering it
case 3
when avant is used as a conjunction joining two clauses with different subjects and different actions then the construct is avant que and the subjunctive is required
examples
Elle est rentrée avant que la pluie commence à tomber. - She returned before the rain started to fall
Les joueurs s'entraînent sérieusement avant que le match commence.
- The players train seriously before the match starts
Il fait mauvais temps;donc rentre chez toi avant qu' il commence à pleuvoir.
- The weather is bad, so go home before it starts to rain
the translations coming up on mouseover are usful, but always need to be adapted to context and to the sentence.
Il faut= one needs/has to is quite a good start for general statements, but when the sentence is clearly targeting one particular person, that ought to be reflected in the english sentence as well. Which is exactly what happens here if you take a close look
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Il faut essuyer tes pieds avant d'entrer = You need to wipe your feet before entering.
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Il faut s'essuyer les pieds avant d'entrer = One needs to wipe their feet before entering.
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Note that 'dry' is shown as a synonym for 'essuyer' when you hover over it.
Did anyone else hear "des pieds"? I know that makes no sense, but after playing it several times in slow version, I still hear "des" and not "tes".
