Llena el formulario antes de salir.

before

Breakdown of Llena el formulario antes de salir.

• salir: to leave
• el formulario: the form
• llenar: to fill out

Questions & Answers about Llena el formulario antes de salir.

Why is Llena used at the beginning of the sentence?

Llena is the informal imperative form (tú command) of the verb llenar ("to fill"). In Spanish, to give a direct instruction or command (telling someone else what to do), you typically use the imperative. Since this is directed to one person informally, the imperative form tú is used, resulting in Llena.

Why do we use antes de salir and not antes de que salgas?

When the subject of the action remains the same (i.e., "you" are both filling out the form and going out), Spanish commonly uses antes de + infinitive. If you wanted to express that someone else is performing the action of going out, or emphasize a different subject, you might use antes de que + subjunctive. But in this sentence, you (the same person) must fill out the form before you go out, so antes de salir with the infinitive is appropriate.

Is this command Llena formal or informal?

Llena is the informal (tú) command form. For a formal command (usted), you would say Llene instead.

Why don’t we see the subject pronoun tú in the sentence?

In Spanish, subject pronouns are often omitted because the verb form indicates who is doing the action. Since Llena is the specific imperative form for tú, it’s understood that it’s directed to “you” informally, making the pronoun unnecessary.

What does antes de mean and how is it used?

Antes de literally means "before." When followed by an infinitive (like salir), it indicates an action (filling out the form) that must be completed before performing another action (going out). It’s a common structure in Spanish to link two actions in sequence.