Prima di comprare i biglietti del treno, controllo l’orario sul tabellone.

In Italian, prima di + infinitive means before doing something.

So:

• prima di comprare = before buying
• prima di partire = before leaving
• prima di mangiare = before eating

This is the normal pattern when the subject stays the same. In this sentence, the person who checks the timetable is also the person who buys the tickets, so prima di + infinitive is exactly right.

Use prima di + infinitive when the action is expressed with an infinitive, usually because the subject is the same.

Use prima che + verb when a full clause is needed, especially if the subject changes.

Examples:

• Prima di comprare i biglietti, controllo l’orario.
  = Before buying the tickets, I check the timetable.
  Same subject: I

• Prima che tu compri i biglietti, controllo l’orario.
  = Before you buy the tickets, I check the timetable.
  Different subjects: you and I

So in your sentence, prima di is the natural choice.

Because after prima di, Italian uses the infinitive.

• comprare = to buy
• compro = I buy

So:

• Prima di comprare... = Before buying...
• Not Prima di compro...

This is similar to English structures like before buying rather than before I buy, although English can use both depending on the sentence.

Italian often uses the article where English might not.

• i biglietti = the tickets
• del treno = of the train / for the train

So i biglietti del treno means the train tickets.

Here, del is a contraction:

• di + il = del

Italian commonly expresses this idea with noun + di + noun:

• il biglietto del treno = the train ticket
• la stazione del treno would sound less natural, but structurally it is the same pattern

In English, we often put one noun before another: train tickets. Italian more often uses di constructions.

Del can mean several related things depending on context, because it combines:

• di = of / from / about
• il = the

So:

• del treno = of the train, for the train, or more naturally in English here, train

In this sentence, i biglietti del treno is best understood as train tickets.

Italian often drops the subject pronoun when it is already clear from the verb ending.

• controllo = I check
• controlli = you check
• controlla = he/she checks

Because the ending -o already shows I, Italian usually does not need io.

So:

• controllo l’orario = I check the timetable
• io controllo l’orario is possible, but it adds emphasis, as in I’m the one who checks the timetable

Here orario means timetable, schedule, or departure/arrival times, depending on context.

The full article would be:

• il orario

But Italian does not keep il before a singular masculine noun starting with a vowel. Instead, it becomes:

• l’orario

This is called elision.

Other examples:

• l’amico = the friend
• l’aeroporto = the airport

So controllo l’orario means I check the timetable/schedule.

Sul is a contraction of:

• su + il = sul

It usually means on the.

So:

• sul tabellone = on the board

In this sentence, tabellone refers to the large display board, such as the departures or arrivals board in a station.

Other similar contractions:

• su + lo = sullo
• su + la = sulla
• su + i = sui
• su + gli = sugli
• su + le = sulle

They refer to two different things:

• l’orario = the timetable / the schedule / the departure time information
• il tabellone = the display board where that information appears

So the sentence means the speaker checks the time or schedule information on the station board before buying tickets.

A useful way to think of it is:

• orario = the information
• tabellone = the physical board showing the information

The part Prima di comprare i biglietti del treno is an introductory phrase.

Italian often uses a comma after a longer introductory phrase, especially when it comes before the main clause.

So the sentence breaks down like this:

• Prima di comprare i biglietti del treno, = Before buying the train tickets,
• controllo l’orario sul tabellone. = I check the timetable on the board.

The comma helps readability. In short sentences, punctuation can sometimes vary, but here the comma is very natural.

Yes, Italian allows some flexibility.

For example:

• Controllo l’orario sul tabellone prima di comprare i biglietti del treno.

This means the same thing: I check the timetable on the board before buying the train tickets.

The version with Prima di... at the beginning gives slightly more emphasis to the before buying idea and is very natural in both spoken and written Italian.

It is pronounced roughly like lo-RAH-ryo, with the stress on ra.

A few useful points:

• The apostrophe does not create a pause.
• l’orario is pronounced smoothly as one unit.
• The ri in orario is part of the flowing sound, not a hard English rye.

If helpful, you can think of it approximately as:

• o-RA-rio

with the article l’ attached directly in front.

It is a very common and natural verb for to check, to inspect, or to verify.

In this sentence, controllo l’orario sounds perfectly normal.

Depending on context, Italian can also use verbs like:

• guardare = to look at
• verificare = to verify
• consultare = to consult

But here:

• controllo l’orario sul tabellone

clearly suggests checking the schedule information to make sure of the train times, so controllare is a good choice.