Breakdown of Je vais m'échauffer avant de nager.
je
I
aller
to go
nager
to swim
avant de
before (+ infinitive)
Questions & Answers about Je vais m'échauffer avant de nager.
Why do we use avant de followed by the infinitive nager here?
We use avant de plus an infinitive when the subject of both actions is the same. Since the person warming up (je) is the same person swimming, we use the infinitive. Also, in French, prepositions like de are always followed by an infinitive, whereas English uses the -ing form like in before swimming.
I thought the word for before was just avant. Why is there a de in this sentence?
Why is the pronoun m' used before échauffer, even though the verb is an infinitive?
The verb for to warm up is s'échauffer, which is a reflexive verb. Even when a reflexive verb is left in the infinitive form, its reflexive pronoun must still match the person doing the action. Since the subject of the sentence is Je, the pronoun changes from se to me, which drops the E to become m' before a vowel.
Could I use the simple future tense and say Je m'échaufferai instead of Je vais m'échauffer?