Page 115 - Practical English Usage 3ed - Michael Swan, Oxford

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Note that been is only used for completed visits. Compare:
- The postman's already been. (He has come and gone away again.)
Jane's COT1Ut, so we can start work. (She has come and is still here.) - I've been to London three times this week.
Where's Lucy?,.., She's gone to London. For be gone, see 229.
before: adverb
'at any time before now/then'
We can use before to mean 'at any time before now'. In British English, a present perfect tense is normally used.
I think I've seen this film before. Have you ever been here before? Before can also mean 'at any time before then - before the past moment that we are talking about'. In this case a past perfect tense is used.
She realised that she had seen him before.
counting back from a past time: eight years before
We also use before after a time expression to 'count back' from a past moment - to say how much earlier something else had happened. A past perfect tense is normally used.
When I went back to the town that I had left eight years before, everything was different. (NOT .•• fhttt: htttlleft fH!}'aye eight yetJrs ...)
To count back from the present. we use ago, not before (see also 33).
I left school four years ago. (N OT ••• ffjitl' years before I be/"re ffjitl' yetlrs)
before, before that and first
Before is not generally used alone to mean 'first' or 'before that happens'. Instead we use first or before that.
I want to get married one day. But before that I first, I want to traveL (NOT ••• Bitt before, { want t8 travel.)
For the difference between before and ever. see 191. For before as a conjunction and preposition. see 97-98.
before: conjunction before + clause. + clause
clause + before + clause position o f before-clause
Before can join one clause to another. Compare:
Before I have breakfast, I spend halfan hour doing physical exercises. I prefer to do my exercises before 1 have breakfast.
(In both sentences, the speaker does exercises first and then has breakfast. In the second example. the before-clause is given more importance because it comes at the end. Note the comma in the first example.)
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Before he did military service, h£ went to university. (He went to university first.)
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before: conjunction 97
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