Page 251 - Basic Japanese

Shinkansen (bullet train) Kodama #5 has just

left Tokyo station.

明日パリへ発ちます。パリに午後３時に着きます。

Ashita Pari e tachimasu. Pari ni gogo san-ji ni tsukimasu.
I’ll leave for Paris tomorrow. I’ll arrive at Paris at
three p.m.

5.17. …前に …mae ni and …後で …ato de

To say ‘before something happens’ or ‘before something
happened,’ you use the imperfect mood followed by mae ni

‘in front of…, in advance of.…’ To say ‘after something
happens’ or ‘after something happened,’ you use the

perfect mood followed by ato ni ‘being after….’ Note that ato
ni can also be substituted by ato de. (Ato de sounds more

colloquial than ato ni.)

晩ご飯を食べる前に山田さんに電話をしました。

Ban go-han o taberu mae ni Yamada-san ni denwa o
shimashita.

Before eating dinner, I called Ms. Yamada.

晩ご飯を食べた後 に/で 映画を見に行きました。

Ban go-han o tabeta ato ni/de eiga o mi ni ikimashita.
After eating dinner, I went to see a movie.

Notice that you always use the same mood in front of
these two expressions regardless of the English translation:

IMPERFECT + mae ni

PERFECT + ato ni