# Swedish: innan, förrän, före, förr, inför, osv



## thedreamer

Allt betyder en typ av "before", eller hur?

Vad är skillnader? När använder man dem? Det vore kanon om du ge några exempel...

Tack på förhand!


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## MattiasNYC

They actually don't all have the same meaning I think.

*"Innan".* "Vi måste förbereda alla ingredienser *innan *gästerna kommer." (We have to prepare all ingredients *before *the guests arrive). 

Please be aware however that "innan" can also have different meanings. It is sometimes used to state that you know something "inside out": "Jag kan boken utan och *innan*".




*"Före"*. "Vi måste förbereda alla ingredienser *före *gästerna kommer." Same as "innan" in that context.

It can also be used in other ways however: 

"Serena Williams har haft sitt bästa år någonsin hittills, men trots det ligger Wozniacki *före*." (Serena Williams has had her best year ever so far, but despite that Wozniaki is *ahead*). This implies that we are talking about standings, and that Wozniacki is placed higher in the ranking. Counting from the top down you could think of it as "before" and that she is "ahead" if you will. And this can be used literally as well, so if it is a sport such as running you could say that one competitor "ligger *före*" another.

And on the topic of sport "*före*" is used in skiing to mean the property of the snow versus how it is to ski on it. "Jag kände mig i toppform och jobbade hårt men fick ändå en dålig tid på grund av uselt *före*." (I felt in top shape and worked hard but still got a lousy finish time because of poor conditions (sorry I do not know the English word for it).




"*förrän*". "Vi kan inte förbereda ingredienserna *förrän *gästerna  kommer." (We can not prepare the ingredients *until *the guests arrive). "Until" would be a better translation.




"*inför*". "Vi städade *inför *deras ankomst." (We cleaned *before *their arrival). I would need some help on distinguishing this from "innan" and "före". To me "*inför*" is a more direct connection of two occurrences. In this case you clean before they arrive, _*because *_they will arrive. If we were to consider a hypothetical where these people who arrived weren't your guests and didn't arrive at your apartment but perhaps the neighbor's, and perhaps you're recounting the events to a court in a criminal case, you would probably use "innan" or "före" to denote what you did before these people showed up to establish a timeline. In other words it wasn't something you did with that expectation and for the benefit of the guests, but it still happened before.



"*förr*". "Man gjorde det *förr*, men gör det inte nu." (People did that *before*, but do not do it nowadays). I think it actually implies "Man gjorde det *förr *_i tiden_."

This can also be used to compare a close future versus a distant one: "*Förr *eller senare måste du betala skatt." (Sooner or later you have to pay taxes)
I am not recalling the following use as being that common, but you could use it as a preference: "*Förr *sitter jag i fängelse *än *betalar skatt!" (I would *rather *do prison time *than *pay taxes!)


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## thedreamer

tack så mycket.

det finns också *förre, förra?*

för _until_ det finns också *tills*, men förrän innehåller en negation, eller hur?
t.ex. vi använder alltid förrän med _inte_.


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## MattiasNYC

"*förra *veckan" = last week. "*förra *filmen" = the previous (or preceding) film.
"förre" is feminin I believe.

"Du måste vänta *tills *i morgon på att få pengarna." = "You have to wait *until *tomorrow to get the money."
"Filmen var bra *tills *dess att skjutandet startade." = "The film was good *until *the shooting started."


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## Ogago

> "förre" is feminin I believe.


Rather when a person is involved.
Example: "Den förre statsministern var bra, den nuvarande är bättre." (A male statsminister"
Perhaps "förra" is more feminine.
Example: Min förra flickvän drev mej till vansinne." but "min förre pojkvän" is okay.

But when it's about a non-person it is always "förra".
Example "Förra året, förra tåget, förra avlöningen," etc.

This opinion of mine might however be a effect of my dialect, I don't really know.


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## MattiasNYC

Whops. Sorry. Thanks for the clarification. I think you're probably right.

Wow, so many things one never thinks about when it comes to one's native language.


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## iAnna

thedreamer said:


> Allt betyder en typ av "before", eller hur?
> 
> Vad är skillnader? När använder man dem? Det vore kanon om du ge några exempel...
> 
> Tack på förhand!



*Innan* inleder en bisats: "Du måste skala löken innan du hackar den"
*Före* är en preposition: "Löken hackas före stekning"


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## Pauline Meryle

My Swedish class was told by the teacher that "innan" comes before a verb and "före" before a noun. To which several of us immediately replied "Innan Frosten" ! (title of one of the first Wallander novels).
I guess when you're as successful an author as Henning Mankell, you can use the language any way you wish.


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## DerFrosch

The use of _innan_ as a preposition was previously considered incorrect, but, according to Språkrådet, it isn't anymore, although some older people will surely tell you that it is, since that's what they learned in school. It's one of those cases where some speakers of a language start, mostly because of ignorance, to use the language incorrectly, but this ungrammatical usage becomes so common that it's no longer possible to say that it's wrong - the rules of the language has changed.


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