Why do we describe something as being ‘before’ or ‘after’ another event, instead of saying it was ‘firstly’ or ‘finally’? Why is there a difference between before and after all these years? And what does it all mean? The key is to understand the difference between ‘before’ and ‘after’, because they don’t have the same meaning.
Summary Table
| Before | After |
| Has an origin and destination | Has no origin or destination |
| Happens earlier than now | Happens after now |
| Use present and past tense | Use past tense |
Definitions
Before refers to a point in time, and it typically has an origin and a destination. For example, ‘before I had breakfast’ means that it was before I woke up in the morning. A key way of understanding ‘before’ is to think of it as being a reference to time.
After refers to space and it typically has no origin, destination or point in time. For example, ‘after I had breakfast’ means that it happened after I woke up in the morning. A key way of understanding ‘after’ is to think of it as being a reference to space.
Before vs After
The difference between before and after is in the time. Before means, it happened earlier than now. When people talk about all before things happened, they use the present tense and past tense. After means, it happened after now. When people talk about all after things happened, they use the past tense.
Before is used to talk about a time or period preceding another time or period. The noun before can also refer to a point of reference or origin with respect to something else. After is the result or outcome of something that happened before, or an event that follows another event. The noun after can also refer to a time interval following another time interval. After is often used with adjectives such as “later” or “later on” to indicate an interval of time after another event.
An example of a difference between before and after meaning would be that “before” means “in front of” and “after” means “behind”. Be careful when you use these two words in a sentence as they are often confused with each other. Before is a preposition that means at an earlier time. After is taken in the sense of to come after, thus causing the events to follow one another.
As you can see, the meaning of before and after is opposite. Before means “in front of” while after means “after”.
In order to help you understand these words better, here are some examples:
- a) We will have lunch before we go out. (before – in front of)
- b) The car is parked after the house. (after – after)
- c) Is there anything you need before we go out today? (before – in front of)
