"I eat before him."
Translation:Jag äter före honom.
13 Comments
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Does this mean "I eat before he eats", or "I eat right in front of him" (as in the saying "I bow before the king"), or both?
I'm guessing, because past tense isn't used here, that this is talking about a routine? Or no?
According to WordRefference, "innan" is a conjunction and "före" is a preposition. Since "honom" is the object of the verb, "innan" is incorrect, right?
I tried "innan", expecting it to be marked as incorrect, to see if I had understood correctly but it was accepted. Now I am a little confused.
innan can be either a conjunction or a preposition, so either works. It can often sound colloquial to use innan as a preposition, though, which is probably why only före is a default translation here.
"Före honom äter jag," isn't accepted, is this grammatically incorrect or just weird/unnatural phrasing?
It's not technically incorrect, but very unidiomatic and should not be accepted. With context following it, it might work, though.
