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Davor vs. Bevor in German | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| ellasevia Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2011 Senior Member Germany Joined 6145 days ago 2150 posts - 3229 votes  Speaks: English*, German, Croatian, Greek, French, Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian Studies: Catalan, Persian, Mandarin, Japanese, Romanian, Ukrainian | Message 1 of 5 11 February 2010 at 2:44pm | IP Logged |
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I just had a quick question for any German-speakers on here. My German book introduced both bevor and davor in my most recent lesson and translated both as "before," but said that the former was a conjunction and the latter was an adverb. It did not, however, give any usage explanations or examples. I would be very grateful if someone could illustrate the difference for me. Vielen Dank!
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| ember Triglot Groupie CyprusRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5406 days ago 63 posts - 101 votes Speaks: Russian*, English, German Studies: Spanish, French, Greek, Polish | Message 2 of 5 11 February 2010 at 3:07pm | IP Logged |
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bevor:
schreib diesen Brief, bevor ich weggehe (write this letter before I go) davor: was steht davor (vor dem Haus)? (what stands in front of it/in front of the house?) Seither verbringe ich viel mehr Zeit am Schreibtisch, als davor (since then I spend much more time at the desk than before [that]) and an example with verb usage: ich fürchte mich davor, daß.. (What I am afraid of is that...) davor is a combination of adverb da (this, here) and preposition vor, so it's roughly translated as 'before that'. bevor is just a preposition 'before' I hope it makes sense :) Edited by ember on 11 February 2010 at 3:15pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Mareike Senior Member Germany Joined 6227 days ago 267 posts - 323 votes Speaks: German* Studies: English, Swedish | Message 3 of 5 11 February 2010 at 6:12pm | IP Logged |
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Ich hätte jetzt spontan gesagt, bevor benutze ich im zeitlichen Sinne und davor im räumlichen.
I would say, you use "bevor" to describe for time, p.e. I do that before I do that... and "davor" to describe a place where something is. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| ellasevia Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2011 Senior Member Germany Joined 6145 days ago 2150 posts - 3229 votes Speaks: English*, German, Croatian, Greek, French, Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian Studies: Catalan, Persian, Mandarin, Japanese, Romanian, Ukrainian | Message 4 of 5 11 February 2010 at 11:42pm | IP Logged |
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Thank you both. That makes much more sense now. :)
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| Sprachprofi Nonaglot Senior Member Germany learnlangs.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6473 days ago 2608 posts - 4866 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Esperanto, Greek, Mandarin, Latin, Dutch, Italian Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written), Swahili, Indonesian, Japanese, Modern Hebrew, Portuguese | Message 5 of 5 12 February 2010 at 12:24am | IP Logged |
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"Davor" can also be used to describe time! However, "bevor" can't be used to describe a
place. Example: Ich muss heute zum Frisör, und davor muss ich noch Essen kochen. (I have to go to the hairdresser today and before that I still have to cook a meal). The difference is that "davor", like all words with da-, includes "that". davor = "vor das" = before that (e. g. before going to the hairdresser, in the above example, or before the house in ember's example) damit = "mit das" = with that daran = "an das" = at that danach = "nach das" = after that, afterwards Vor dem Essen gehe ich aus => Davor gehe ich aus. Bevor ich esse, gehe ich aus. Nach dem Essen gehe ich aus => Danach gehe ich aus. Nachdem ich esse, gehe ich aus. The difference is that "vor" and "nach" require a simple noun phrase, which can be replaced by "davor" and "danach" much like a pronoun can replace a noun. "bevor" and "nachdem" however require a verb phrase, they start a subclause. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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