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- "Hon springer före mig."
22 Comments
so this means "before" as in "in front of", not "before" as in time? Or are they the same?
It can mean both. If you want to avoid being ambiguous, you can say hon springer framför mig, meaning she's running before me as in in front of me or further down the path.
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In English, the sentence "She's running before me" could technically (and this is debatable) only mean location because "me" is an object, not the beginning of an assumed clause - "She's running before I [run]".
Is there the same kind of distinction in Swedish? ("Hon springer före jag [springer].")
I assume absolutely nobody would care in speech or writing, as is the case in English, but I'm curious.
It could before in time if it was like a race, and she is running first and I am running second.
In this case, would it be OK to use "innan" for the other meaning ? "Hon springer innan mig" as "before I start running" ?
I can't understand the difference between innan and före. Is there kind of rule for that?
Could före or framför work well in a sentence like 'The kids are growing right before our eyes' ? Like in a kind of metaphor?
correct me if I'm wrong. Whereas före can refer both time and place, framför is only about place and innan only about time?
No. The verb springer is in present tense in the Swedish sentence so you cannot change it to the past tense ran in the English sentence.
english isnt my first language, but to me using "before" to indicate place here feels very strange. I would use "ahead of" then (or in front of, if you want to imply close vicinity). With "before"I immediately think of time.
can anyone verify (or refute) if using "before" to indicate place could indeed be used here?
Is this a dagger which I see before me? -Shakespeare's Macbeth
In Swedish the consensus from above comments seems to be that, just as in English, före can be used for both place and time.
For what it's worth, as a native speaker of American English, I would never say, "She's running before me," or if I did, I would immediately clarify, "She's running before I am."
If I meant location, I would say, "She's running in front of me," or "She's running ahead of me." We don't speak Shakespearean English anymore.
(I would never say "She runs before me." That means she habitually runs before I run, and I can't think of any situation where I would say that without clarifying. But I did type that as my answer because it's shorter.)
Would "före" be used in a sentence like "I stand before you" as if the speaker was standing in front of an audience about to give a speech, or something. Just curious.
