Breakdown of Antaŭ ol ni dormas, mi petas mian fratinon malŝalti la lampon apud la sofo.
mi
I
la
the
ni
we
mia
my
Questions & Answers about Antaŭ ol ni dormas, mi petas mian fratinon malŝalti la lampon apud la sofo.
Why does the sentence start with antaŭ ol?
Antaŭ ol means before when it introduces a whole clause.
- antaŭ by itself is a preposition: before, in front of
- ol is used here to connect antaŭ to a clause
So:
- antaŭ la vespermanĝo = before dinner
- antaŭ ol ni dormas = before we sleep
A native English speaker often wants to translate before with just one word, but in Esperanto, before + clause is usually antaŭ ol.
Why is it ni dormas and not ni dormos?
This is a very natural question, because English often uses present tense in time clauses: before we sleep.
In Esperanto, tense is usually chosen more literally from the speaker’s point of view:
- dormas = sleep / are sleeping now, or sleep habitually
- dormos = will sleep
So if this sentence refers to a specific future bedtime, many speakers would prefer Antaŭ ol ni dormos.
If the idea is more general or habitual, dormas can be understood more like before we sleep in English. So the given sentence is understandable, but dormos may sound more precise in many contexts.
Why is it mian fratinon with -n on both words?