juānzèng yǐqián yào xiān xiāodú.

first

Breakdown of juānzèng yǐqián yào xiān xiāodú.

• 以前yǐqián: before
• 要yào: should
• 捐赠juānzèng: to donate

Questions & Answers about juānzèng yǐqián yào xiān xiāodú.

What is the basic word order of this sentence?

The structure is:

捐赠以前 + 要 + 先 + 消毒

A very literal breakdown is:

• 捐赠以前 = before donating / before the donation
• 要 = need to / must
• 先 = first
• 消毒 = disinfect / sterilize / sanitize

So the sentence follows a common Chinese pattern:

time phrase + modal verb + sequence word + main verb

In natural English, it comes out as something like:

Before donating, you need to disinfect first.

The word order feels different from English, but it is very normal in Chinese to put the time phrase near the beginning.

What does 要 mean here? Does it mean want to?