Word
Salimos de casa antes de que empezara a llover.
Meaning
We left the house before it started to rain.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Salimos de casa antes de que empezara a llover.
la casa
the house / home (also "at home")
de
from
a
to
empezar
to begin
Questions & Answers about Salimos de casa antes de que empezara a llover.
Why is empezara in the subjunctive here?
The phrase antes de que (before) always triggers the subjunctive in Spanish. It introduces an event that hadn't happened yet at the time of the main action (salimos), so it is treated as an anticipated event rather than an established fact.
Why do we use the imperfect subjunctive (empezara) instead of the present subjunctive (empiece)?
Because the main verb (salimos) is in a past tense. Spanish follows strict tense agreement rules: if the main clause is in the past, the subjunctive verb in the dependent clause must also be in a past tense.
Why do we need que here instead of just saying antes de empezar?
You can only use antes de plus an infinitive when the subject of both actions is the exact same (for example, 'We left before we ate'). Here, the subjects are different ('we' left, 'it' started to rain), so you must use antes de que followed by a conjugated verb.
Could I use empezase instead of empezara here?
Yes, absolutely. The imperfect subjunctive has two interchangeable sets of endings: -ara and -ase. You will hear both in Spain, though the -ara form used here is generally more common in everyday speech.
Why is it de casa instead of de la casa?