Learn Hardcore Spanish (Spain): Antes de salir, mi madre miró si había suficiente gasolina para llegar a la playa. - Before leaving, my mother checked whether there was enough petrol to get to the beach.

Word

Antes de salir, mi madre miró si había suficiente gasolina para llegar a la playa.

Meaning

Before leaving, my mother checked whether there was enough petrol to get to the beach.

Part of speech

sentence

Pronunciation

Course

Hardcore Spanish (Spain)

Lesson

Lesson 45

Breakdown of Antes de salir, mi madre miró si había suficiente gasolina para llegar a la playa.

para

antes de

before

Questions & Answers about Antes de salir, mi madre miró si había suficiente gasolina para llegar a la playa.

Why is it antes de salir and not just antes salir?

In Spanish, antes is normally followed by de when the next verb is in the infinitive.

antes de salir = before leaving / before going out
después de comer = after eating

So de is required here. Saying antes salir would sound ungrammatical.

Why is salir in the infinitive?

Because after antes de, Spanish uses the infinitive when the subject is the same or when the action is being referred to in a general way.

Antes de salir, mi madre... = Before leaving, my mother...

It works like English before leaving. Spanish often uses antes de + infinitive where English may use either before leaving or before she left, depending on style.

Does salir here mean to leave or to go out?

It could be understood as either, depending on context. Salir has a broad meaning:

to go out
to leave
to head out

In this sentence, it most naturally means something like before leaving / before setting off.

Why does it say mi madre instead of just mamá or using a subject pronoun like ?