sonnimi ogi jeone chareul junbihaeyo.

In this sentence, 손님이 marks 손님 as the subject of the clause 오기 전에.

• 손님이 오기 전에 = before the guest comes
• Here, 이/가 is the normal subject marker.

You could say 손님은 오기 전에, but that would add a topic/contrast feeling, like as for the guest, before they come... In a neutral sentence like this, 이/가 is the most natural choice.

오기 전에 is the pattern verb stem + -기 전에, which means before doing something.

Here is the breakdown:

• 오다 = to come
• 오- = verb stem
• 오기 = coming / the act of coming
• 전에 = before

So 오기 전에 literally works like before coming, and in natural English it is often translated as before the guest comes.

The -기 turns the verb into a noun-like form so that 전에 can attach to it.

Korean usually does not use a future marker in this pattern. With -기 전에, the meaning before X happens is already clear from context.

So:

• 손님이 오기 전에 = before the guest comes

Even though the coming will happen later, Korean normally keeps the verb in its basic stem form before -기 전에. This is very natural.

를 is the object marker. It shows that 차 is the thing being prepared.

• 차를 준비해요 = prepare the tea

So the sentence structure is:

• 손님이 오기 전에 = before the guest comes
• 차를 준비해요 = prepare tea

In casual conversation, object particles are sometimes dropped, but in a standard textbook sentence, 를 is expected.

It can mean either tea or car, depending on context. In this sentence, it almost certainly means tea.

That is because:

• 손님이 오기 전에 suggests receiving a guest
• 차를 준비해요 naturally means prepare tea

If 차 meant car, the sentence would sound unusual unless there were a very specific context.

준비해요 comes from the dictionary form 준비하다, which means to prepare.

Breakdown:

• 준비하다 = to prepare
• 준비해요 = polite present-style form

This is the -아/어요 polite form. With 하다 verbs, it becomes 해요:

• 준비하다 → 준비해요

This form can express:

• a present action
• a habitual action
• a near-future action
• a general statement

So here it can mean something like I prepare tea before the guest comes or We prepare tea before the guest comes, depending on context.

That is normal in Korean. The subject of 준비해요 is omitted because it is understood from context.

Possible implied subjects include:

• I
• we
• you
• another person already known in the conversation

If you wanted to make it explicit, you could say:

• 제가 차를 준비해요 = I prepare the tea
• 우리가 차를 준비해요 = We prepare the tea

Korean often leaves subjects unstated when they are obvious.

No. 손님이 is the subject of the smaller clause 오기 전에.

So the sentence contains two parts:

1. 손님이 오기 전에 = before the guest comes
2. 차를 준비해요 = prepare tea

The person who comes is the guest, but the person who prepares the tea is someone else, usually omitted.

This is a very common structure in Korean: one clause gives the time or condition, and the main clause gives the main action.

Yes. Both are common and natural.

• 오기 전
• 오기 전에

Both mean before coming. The version with 에 is a little fuller, but in many sentences the meaning is basically the same.

So these are both fine:

• 손님이 오기 전에 차를 준비해요
• 손님이 오기 전 차를 준비해요

준비하다 is a broad verb meaning prepare / get ready, so it works well here.

With 차를 준비해요, the idea is not only brew tea, but more generally get the tea ready. That could include:

• making it
• setting it out
• getting cups ready
• preparing to serve it

A more specific verb might change the nuance:

• 차를 타요 = make/mix a drink
• 차를 내요 = serve tea
• 차를 준비해요 = prepare the tea / get the tea ready

So 준비해요 is a natural, flexible choice.