Questions & Answers about Перед отправкой я быстро набрал текст на клавиатуре.
Why is отправкой in the form отправкой, not отправка?
Because перед in the sense of before normally takes the instrumental case.
So:
- отправка → nominative
- перед отправкой → instrumental after перед
The same pattern appears in:
- перед уроком = before the lesson
- перед встречей = before the meeting
- перед отъездом = before departure
So перед отправкой means before sending or more literally before the sending.
Is отправкой a verb here?
No. Отправкой is a noun, from отправка.
Russian often uses nouns like this where English might prefer a verb. So instead of saying something like before I send it, Russian can say before sending / before the sending with a noun phrase:
- перед отправкой
This is very natural in Russian. A more explicitly verbal version would be:
- перед тем, как отправить
Both are possible, but the noun version is shorter and very common.
Why is the verb набрал used here? Doesn’t it usually mean collected or dialed?