Antes de salir, reviso si llevo el abono en la cartera.

Before going out, I check whether I have the travel pass in my wallet.

Breakdown of Antes de salir, reviso si llevo el abono en la cartera.

• yo: I
• en: in
• salir: to go out
• antes de: before

Questions & Answers about Antes de salir, reviso si llevo el abono en la cartera.

Why is it antes de salir and not antes salir?

Because antes is followed by de before an infinitive.

• antes de + infinitive = before doing something
• So antes de salir means before leaving / before going out

This is a very common pattern in Spanish:

• antes de comer = before eating
• antes de dormir = before sleeping

If you use a full conjugated clause instead, you normally use antes de que:

• Antes de que salga, reviso... = Before I leave, I check...

Why is salir in the infinitive?

Because after antes de, Spanish normally uses the infinitive when the subject is the same as in the main clause or when the subject is general/understood.

Here, reviso and salir both refer to I:

• Antes de salir, reviso... = Before leaving, I check...

Spanish prefers the infinitive in this kind of structure, where English often uses before leaving.

Why is there no yo before reviso?