How to use "before" in a sentence

As I walk, I think about the history of the people who were here before me

The hardest part is 180 metres before this

We arrive just before 2.00 pm

You won't get back before dark,' she says.

That's why it's always very important to check the weather before canyoning.

I am calmer than before

If I don't escape before then, I will die.

Perhaps I can remove this large piece before I stop for the night

I chip at the rock for another hour and remove as much as the piece that came off before

It takes twenty-five throws before it lands in the right place

My only hope is rescue, but I'll die before help arrives.

Escape has been impossible and I will die before anyone finds me

It seems colder than the night before

I spend most of the day chipping, resting, and counting the minutes before my next drink of water.

But there was something the officer didn't tell them: a person has to be missing for at least forty-eight hours before the police will start a search and rescue operation

They'll wait forty-eight hours before searching

After that, I sit again and it's not long before the visions return

I am back in the canyon again, but now I don't feel the same as before

It's never been this late before

It's my last thought before falling into a long, deep sleep.

I was soon eating normal food and by the end of the summer, I was the same weight as before the accident.

It wouldn't be long before I would be able to go climbing again

On October the 25th - two days before my twenty-eighth birthday - I returned to Blue John Canyon

Just before I left, I looked at the dates of my life on the canyon wall

The mysterious ship began to sink before Ned finished his sentence.

We had to wait six days for the water to rise before the ship could leave

'That bottle was not on the table before,' thought Alice.

But before she got there, she fell into some water

The Caterpillar looked at Alice for some time before it spoke

'It asked me that question before,' she thought

So we're making the flowers red before she sees them.'

She thought, 'I won't speak to it before it has its ears - or perhaps one ear.'

The enemy started shooting at us before we got on the ground, and they blew up one of our helicopters

It was almost night before we found our other soldiers in the jungle.

Then we got orders to move the machine gun about fifty metres to the left of the big tree that was in the middle of the valley, and to find a safe place to put it before the enemy blew us all up.

I waited in there for almost an hour before I came out again.

Well, lots of newspaper men started taking photographs before Colonel Gooch could run across and pull me away!

Just before I left the hospital in Danang, I had a letter from her

'She was there all night before we could get her out.'

Instead of coming down in the sea when we returned, the space ship came down in the jungle somewhere, and it was four years before the NASA people found us! But the ape and I were soon good friends

Like I said before, Big Sam taught me how to play chess when I was in the jungle

I had another hour before I had to catch the bus again, so I went across and watched him

Fellow citizens of the United States: in compliance with a custom as old as the government itself, I appear before you to address you briefly and to take, in your presence, the oath prescribed by the Constitution of the United States, to be taken by the President "before he enters on the execution of his office."

But if the destruction of the Union by one or by a part only of the States be lawfully possible, the Union is LESS perfect than before the Constitution, having lost the vital element of perpetuity.

It is a duty from which they may not shrink to decide cases properly brought before them, and it is no fault of theirs if others seek to turn their decisions to political purposes.

Is it possible, then, to make that intercourse more advantageous or more satisfactory after separation than before? Can aliens make treaties easier than friends can make laws? Can treaties be more faithfully enforced between aliens than laws can among friends? Suppose you go to war, you cannot fight always; and when, after much loss on both sides, and no gain on either, you cease fighting, the identical old questions as to terms of intercourse are again upon you.

Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with, or even before, the conflict itself should cease

I believe that a man is the strongest soldier for daring to die unarmed with his breast bare before the enemy

If I read the temper of our people correctly, we now realize, as we have never realized before, our interdependence on each other; that we cannot merely take, but we must give as well; that if we are to go forward, we must move as a trained and loyal army willing to sacrifice for the good of a common discipline, because without such discipline no progress can be made, no leadership becomes effective.

And it is to be hoped that the normal balance of executive and legislative authority may be wholly equal, wholly adequate to meet the unprecedented task before us

We face the arduous days that lie before us in the warm courage of national unity; with the clear consciousness of seeking old and precious moral values; with the clean satisfaction that comes from the stern performance of duty by old and young alike

For I have sworn before you and Almighty God the same solemn oath our forebears prescribed nearly a century and three-quarters ago.

Finally, to those nations who would make them-selves our adversary, we offer not a pledge but a request: that both sides begin anew the quest for peace, before the dark powers of destruction unleashed by science engulf all humanity in planned or accidental self-destruction.

I liked to study the faces of new customers before I spoke to them.

I decided what kind of people they were before they said a word to me

I walked with her to the hand-carriage before she had time to object.

It was November before I saw Mr Slinkton again, this time in London

Sometime before thieves broke the lock and stole things

Let us follow Annie's movements before the night of her murder

But the week before her murder she was not at the lodging house

Just over half an hour before, Russian and Polish Jews were having a discussion in the club

He thought the woman had died between twenty to thirty minutes before

It was the same dark, silent square of 14 minutes before, when he had walked around it

One of them walked through Goulston Street just before 2.15, but saw nothing suspicious and returned to Mitre Square

And only minutes before at 1.41 or 1.42 another officer looked into the square from Church Passage

Mr Morris, the night watchman in the warehouse, went to the door and looked into the square 'two moments before Constable Watkins called him

Just before 4 a.m

'I hope it will be a fine day tomorrow,' Mary had told Mrs Prater the morning before, 'as I want to go to the Lord Mayor's Show.' At 10.45 on Friday morning Mary's landlord, John McCarthy, was checking his accounts in his shop at 27 Dorset Street

The Ripper did not stay with his victims for hours before killing them.

But he had only arrived in England the year before, so how could he know the area as well as the Ripper? And is it possible that Jack the Ripper changed from savagely killing prostitutes to poisoning barmaids?

Some writers have asked why he did not go to the police before the inquest

So he had to go to the police before they found him and asked him why he was there

On August 7th, before the Buck's Row murder, a woman called Martha Tabram was killed and then stabbed ferociously with a knife 39 times

However, two days before, somebody sent a letter to the police, which was never published

One evening in October 1815, an hour before sunset, a man with a long beard and dusty, torn clothes walked into the town of Digne

The townspeople, who had never seen him before, watched with interest as he stopped for water at a fountain

That evening, Mme Magloire was chatting with Mile Baptistine before serving the meal.

'My name is Jean Valjean,' the stranger said before anybody could speak

He had never before seen such peace, such kindness, such trust.

As he sang, he threw a coin into the air and caught it before it fell

But before Valjean could produce more coins, the priest rode away in terror.

They made her get up before dawn every day and do all the dirty jobs around the house, while Eponine and Azelma wore pretty clothes and played with dolls

Madeleine, and was sure that he had seen him somewhere before, many years earlier

He watched as several witnesses swore on the Bible that the man standing before the judge was Jean Valjean

Madeleine waited for the whispers to stop before announcing in a loud, clear voice that he was Jean Valjean

But before she could start her knitting, she heard Mme Thenardier's angry voice demanding, 'Where's the bread I told you to get?'

But before she could deliver the blow the old man, who had seen everything, interrupted her.

The old woman, the only other person who lived in the building, always went to bed before nightfall

Marius rose to his feet, sure that he had seen the girl somewhere before.

The Jondrette family had been Marius's neighbours for many months, but he had never before paid much attention to them

When Marius had recovered some of his senses, he saw that she seemed a little paler than before

He managed to open it but, before he could jump, the three men jumped on him and held him to the floor.

They threw the rope ladder from the open window but, before they could escape, the door opened and Inspector Javert walked in.

She had never read anything like this before, and it affected her deeply.

The old man paused for a moment before saying, 'So, you want to get married at the age of twenty-one

'You'll be shot two minutes before the barricade falls,' Enjolras informed him.

His anger and misery of minutes before had been replaced by a terrible calmness

Oh, and one more thing before you go,'Valjean said when the boy had handed him the letter

Jean Valjean went back into the house and tried to make sense of the words that danced before his eyes: I shall die..

If he kept the letter in his pocket, Cosette would never know what had happened to the other man, and life with her would continue the same as before

'They've taken me prisoner,' he thought, moments before losing consciousness

When Marius had been hit, Valjean ran to him at once, grabbed him before he fell and carried his unconscious body into a small alley behind the wine shop

When they had got back into the carriage, however, Valjean said, 'Inspector, will you do one last thing for me before you arrest me?'

It was the happiest night of Cosette's life, spoilt only by one thing: the fact that her guardian - whom she still thought of as her father - went home before the feast had started, saying that he felt ill

He waited in the small, damp room for an hour before sadly returning home

He would then stare at the house for several minutes, tears rolling down his cheeks, before turning round and slowly returning home.

It was not long before the wolf arrived at the old woman's house

But before I move, I need to know something

And look, the blood behind his ear is where she hit him before she escaped."

"Good Lord, you should leave now before the police get here, and maybe you can still escape," he laughs again, "but I doubt it."

The sun is almost down behind the green, snowy mountains now, and it is colder than before

"What?" she says before he can open the door

"Nice one!" says the first before he disappears into the bar

"Well, nice to meet you both, but I need to get up to the farm before dark."

They both stand up, but before Nick moves into the crowds, Jake stops him

But can he get there before the man catches him?

"Jesus," Nick says before he can stop himself, and the girl sees him and closes the mobile phone in her hand.

So he crosses the road slowly and casually, walks up the stone steps of the church and looks around once more before he pushes open the wooden doors and goes inside.

And an old man who looks at Barry for a moment before returning to his prayers

"Yes, I'm here," he says, and for a moment there is silence before he remembers what to say

there's something I need to get before I can go

And before Barry Brennan begins to shout and scream to the empty church, he hears the soft voice one more time.

So instead he just wants to get as far from the town called Needles as he can before the night comes.

But before he can decide what, the cop is at the door, and Dan drops his cigarette.

And he remembers the last thing she said before she closed the door to the hotel room.

No, this time the sun is high and hot, and this time Owen has his old guns over his shoulder, and he remembers the way that Junior's expressionless face changed when he saw them the night before.

And don't forget there are two shots and that I should empty the gun before I give it back to you."

But before he can do this, Junior, who does not know what is making the noise, remembers his dad's words:

Play the game, get the money and run before anyone knew he was there.

Did you hear that, Jimmy? So before I take this gag out of your mouth, and before you think about saying something stupid again, think about this

I changed the pack of cards before the last game

Sala's grandmother remembered life before the Oil Wars, when people could travel freely and see other parts of the world

She'd never seen anything like it before.

Cham kissed her, and before Sala could say anything else, he turned and ran out into the rain.

What's more, there was a force field at the city boundary that was impossible to cross: there were alarms there that sensed your wrist chip before you even got close, and then government agents appeared in seconds to arrest you

Years ago, before the Oil Wars," said Gran

Sala and Apat arrived at the energy center before it opened, and found Cham already in line to get in

They had never argued before

"I know what you said before, but..

It was a few moments before Sala spoke

More free than you were before."

Sala had seen it before, of course, from a distance - but she'd never been so close to it.

Then a face she had seen before

They'd never had to make a big decision like this before, and she wished with all her heart that he wasn't making her choose

They find problems even before they've happened, and fix them."

But before Mom could answer, there was a gasp from Gran

But we can meet before? Outside, fifteen minutes early?"

With just two days to go before Pod Life began, Sala woke up feeling depressed

Before long, they passed through a district that Sala had never visited before

"We checked your ultranet history before giving you the rose fruit

She'd never considered it before, when she'd had nothing to hide

This world, the city with its wrist chips and simulators, was the only one they knew, but Gran often talked about life before the Oil Wars - how they used to walk freely in the forests, grow flowers and fruit, sing songs around fires on the beach, and travel to wonderful places

When they had talked about it before, she had felt left out; not jealous, exactly, because she was sure that she didn't want to join them

In the end, they had just an hour or two at his apartment before he left

She turned away, and before Sala could stop her, she picked up her yellow bag and disappeared through the center's doors.

But she was so good at just melting away, disappearing before Sala had time to realize she was going

"I told you before

She took the same exit as before and walked cautiously toward the tower block

After looking around to check that no one was watching her, she slipped quietly down the passageway, and found the same door as before

Or he didn't, before he went into the pod."

But the day before her next Ultranet Talk Hour with Cham, she decided to go to the simulator center

"The letter from Gran's brother." The words slipped out before she could stop herself, and she knew at once that she shouldn't have said it

There was one last Ultranet Talk Hour with Cham before the end of the month, but Sala decided it wasn't even worth trying to talk to him about leaving

I tried to warn you before."

And then, just before daybreak, she had an idea

Zee took them to the same room as before

I hoped that de Winter would get away before I returned.

It was half an hour before our usual lunch-time

'Have you been here before?'

Yes, I have been here before, many years ago.'

I want to forget everything that happened to me before that time

'He will not be back before midnight.'

'Why didn't you tell me about this before?' he said.

It was the best time of year, before the heat of summer

Long before we reached Manderley, there was blue sky over our heads

'Then this was not his bedroom before?'

This is what he did before he knew me

They're coming today?' I said, feeling less happy than before.

'Mrs de Winter always used the morning-room before lunch

Maxim had not shown it to me the night before.

I had seen that tall sloping writing before

As I said before, you are not what we expected

The door opened before Maxim could answer

'Darling,' I said to Maxim when we were alone, 'I meant to tell you before, but I forgot

Everything was exactly as before

I had never seen it before and I hoped the visitor did not want to stay to tea.

He had certainly been to Manderley before

She was wearing it the night before she died

'You looked quite different when I saw you before,' Beatrice told me

Go quickly, before anyone comes.' I could not speak

Beatrice stared at me before she spoke.

The fog was thicker than before

I remember how she looked at me before she died

He had never kissed me like this before.

'I put Manderley first, before anything else

I wondered why I had been frightened of the servants before.

It was the same food as the day before

'Accidents have happened before,' the Coroner said

Just before seven, the rain began to fall heavily

'Bring him in here, please, Frith.' I hoped that Favell would go before Maxim came back

We began to kiss each other, like guilty lovers who had never kissed before.

She had come to me the week before

The road to Manderley lay before us

Unaware that she was staring at him, the boy put one hand to his mouth and bit gently on his bent thumb knuckle, which Danny had begun to do a year or so before he died

Nevertheless, she knew that when she had the dream again, she would find new hope in it as she had so many times before.

Danny's cries and her response became increasingly shrill and desperate, for they knew that they must reach each other before nightfall or be lost forever; in the oncoming night, something waited for Danny, something fearsome that would seize him if he was alone after dark

For fifteen years, ever since she turned eighteen, two years before she married Michael, Tina Evans had lived and worked in Las Vegas

At first, it had seemed terribly wrong that such a wonderful opportunity should come her way before she'd even had time to mourn her boy, as if the Fates were so shallow and insensitive as to think that they could balance the scales and offset Danny's death merely by presenting her with a chance at her dream job

A little more than a year before he had died, Danny had begun sleeping at the opposite end of the small house from the master bedroom, in what had once been the den

Danny must have left them before he died

Shortly before noon, two high rollers from Dallas sat down at a blackjack table and, in three hours, lost a quarter of a million bucks; they were laughing and joking when they left the table to try another game

She had two and a half hours to fill before she had to leave for the hotel again.

Twenty-five minutes before showtime Tina left the stage and went into the noisy showroom

Waitresses, waiters, and captains rushed back and forth to fill the drink orders before the show began

Vivienne reached for the doorknob but stopped before touching it, unable to believe what she was seeing

These things were as they always had been, since she had first come to work here, before Danny had died.

The legs at the foot rose three or four inches before crashing back into the casters, that had been put under them to protect the carpet

Each time that Tina moved on to talk to someone else, she regretted leaving Elliot, and each time that she found him again, she stayed with him longer than she had before

Shortly before midnight, Danny's room began to grow cold

Tina didn't get home from the opening-night party until shortly before two o'clock Wednesday morning

Though Danny's screams were increasingly muffled, they were even more urgent than before, because the dirt began to cover his face and pour into his mouth

She had to get down to him and push the earth away from his face before he suffocated, so in blind panic she threw herself over the edge of the pit, into the terrible abyss, falling and falling-

Michael led the way, gently pushing and elbowing through the holiday crowd, and Tina followed quickly in his wake, before the path that he made could close up again.

Standing before her in the sunshine, his white shirt shimmering with squiggles of reflected light that bounced off the parked cars, he favored her with that self-satisfied, superior smile that made her feel as cold as this winter day ought to have been.

It won't be like before."

He interrupted her before she'd said more than his name

And before you give me any more of that treacly talk about your great love of family, let me remind you that it wasn't me who tore our family apart

"Is there anything more you need before I leave?"

Tina waited until at least a hundred names had been listed before she decided that the system had been programmed to print the lines about Danny only one time, only on her office's first data request of the afternoon, and on no later call-up.

As he drew near, he opened his arms, as if it was the most natural thing in the world for him to hold and comfort her, as if he had held her many times before, and she leaned against him in the same spirit of familiarity

Tina was disturbed by his analysis because it matched her own, and it led her into the same blind alley that she'd traveled before

She had to take another small sip of cognac before she was able to say what was on her mind, and she realized that he had been right about the liquor having little effect on her

She hesitated, trying to hear how it was going to sound before she said it, wondering if she really believed it enough even to give voice to it

"Have you ever handled anything like this before?"

While Tina and Elliot had been joking in the kitchen, even before dinner had been completely prepared, she had begun to think they might go to bed together

Tina felt as if they had talked without pause all evening, speaking with quiet urgency, as if each had a vast quantity of earthshakingly important information that he must pass on to the other before they parted

But before she realized what was happening, their lips met softly, briefly

He kissed her ears, her eyes again, and left a chain of kisses along her neck, and when at last he returned to her mouth, he kissed her more deeply than before, and she responded at once, opening her mouth to him.

She felt as if the two of them had been here, like this, locked in an embrace, many times before.

She felt up to the challenge now, and she intended to finish the task before she lost her nerve again.

Although a judicial purist might have disapproved, prosecutors and public defenders and tax attorneys and criminal lawyers and corporate counsel were mingling and getting pleasantly drunk with the judges before whom they argued cases most every week

There was a bitter divorce shortly before the boy died

He had a few chores to finish before she came, so they wouldn't have to spend a lot of time doing galley labor as they had done last night

If this was what Danny had read before going to bed at night, how had he been able to sleep so well? He'd always been a deep, unmoving sleeper, never troubled by bad dreams.

She had never seen this drawing before

And even if she had seen the color illustration before, she knew damned well that she hadn't read the story - The Boy Who Was Not Dead

Let's get you packed and the hell out of here before any more of these guys show up."

"He left just a couple minutes before you came in."

But even as Tina looked from Elliot to the fire, before all of the shingles had fallen back to earth, a second explosion slammed through the house, and a billowing cloud of flame roared from one end of the structure to the other, bursting those few windows that had miraculously survived the first blast.

"For God's sake, Tina, get in the car, and let's go before the shooting starts."

Appearing to be somewhat amazed herself, Tina hesitated not at all before she said, "Sol Fitzpatrick."

Kennebeck's bosses want to stop us before we sow any seeds of doubt about the official explanation

In the rush to get out of her house before the gas explosion leveled it, he hadn't noticed that she'd been carrying anything

"Then you must have seen the magazine before and you just-"

But before we go in, let's check out that list of questions they were going to make you answer."

If they're waiting, watching - we'll be dead before we can tell a reporter more than a sentence or two

I think we'll have to take the story out of town, and before we do that, I'd like to have a few more facts."

And I want to be damn sure before we try to go public with it

"You said we ought to come up with more evidence before we go to the newspapers."

"We'll buy whatever we need before we leave."

But before she could think of a way to phrase her odd request, the old man succeeded in unplugging the machine.

"A tremendous sense of peace, of reassurance, came over me in the diner, just before you finally managed to shut off the jukebox

"First of all," Elliot said, "before he went into the mountains with Jaborski, in all the years you knew him and lived in the same house with him, did Danny ever show any signs of being psychic?"

Danny was barely old enough to understand the rules, but he'd never played before

That's why they've been so much different from any dreams I've had before, so much stronger and more vivid."

He seemed to find this new statement more outrageous than what she'd said before

A group had gone down a while ago and would be returning for their last stand at the tables before a whole new staff came on duty with the shift change

Kennebeck stood before one of the display cases, studying the minutely detailed rigging of a late-eighteenth-century French frigate

As Kennebeck turned away from the French frigate, beginning to wonder if he ought to get out from under the Network before it collapsed on him, George Alexander entered the study through the door that opened off the downstairs hallway

"We'll find Stryker and the woman before morning

So if they can't open the grave and see for themselves what we've done to Danny Evans, what are they going to do instead? They're going to do the next best thing - talk to the person who was supposedly the last one to see the boy's corpse before it was sealed in the coffin

He lived here for eight or nine years before he decided to apply for citizenship

He was scheduled to take possession of it shortly before midnight.

"Get to the rental car before he does

Elliot was glad they had bought a couple of heavy coats before leaving Las Vegas

We've got a gauntlet to run before we can find him and bring him back

We might both be killed before we even get close to him."

"Heartbeat's normal, maybe even slightly slower than before

They traveled an additional quarter of a mile before Luciano Bellicosti's home and place of business came into sight on the left, beyond a black-bordered sign that grandiosely stated the nature of the service that he provided: FUNERAL DIRECTOR AND GRIEF COUNSELOR

"Yeah, I've killed before

And we better get out of the neighborhood before they find that guy in the snow."

Danny called to her again and again, begging her to save him before the roof of his underground prison caved in and buried him alive

"We'd be killed before we could reach him

"I want them found before another day passes," Alexander said

"Her mind was messed up before I ever met her."

She pulled the cap off the red felt-tip pen that Elliot had purchased at the hotel newsstand just before they'd caught a taxi to Sandstone's house

So I usually just drive down the day before I open

"The brain doesn't all of a sudden start growing new little nodes that nobody's ever seen before."

The new track ran a hundred yards before rising and turning sharply to the right, around the blunt face of a ridge

"You've flown in storms before."

Even before Elliot had lowered the pistol, the same set of elevator doors slid open again

The light on the indicator board changed from four to three to two, and the air inside the lift became so frigid that Tina's breath hung in clouds before her

Now park your ass in that chair before I blow your fuckin' head off."

She took a step, then another, and before she knew it, she was at the window, beside Dombey.

For almost two months, they've been reinfecting his body over and over again, letting the virus wear him down, trying to discover how many times he can lick it before it finally licks him

"If I understand you, the Chinese could use Wuhan-400 to wipe out a city or a country, and then there wouldn't be any need for them to conduct a tricky and expensive decontamination before they moved in and took over the conquered territory."

"I've heard that one before."

The scoutmaster had parked the expedition's minibus on a lay-by about a mile and a half into the woods, and he and his assistant and the kids had walked in another half-mile before they encountered Larry Bollinger

One day maybe he would be standing in a graveyard, before the tombstone of one of his victims, and the person he had killed would reach out to him from beyond and let him see, in some vivid clairvoyant fashion, exactly what death was like

I received a death threat by phone the night before the arbitration - I can't say for certain that it was from the writer; the voice was so deep that it might have been his mother - and the next morning the law firm handling the studio's case assured me that they had taken extra security measures for the meeting

He stayed in his room most of the time, and drank more than before

He had an amazing ability to detect a lie even before it was spoken

will you promise to destroy that fly before doing anything else?'

For a year before his death, my husband had told me about some of his experiments

He knew that the Air Ministry would have forbidden some of them as too dangerous, but he wanted to be certain about the results before reporting his discovery.

'And I remember your friend, Professor Augier, saying that the only possible explanation was that the stones had been disintegrated outside the house, had then come through the walls, and been reintegrated before hitting the floor or opposite walls

I had to calm myself before I knocked slowly three times

I 'transmitted' myself successfully the night before last

Since I must leave you, I would rather you remembered me as I was before

He was typing before I finished speaking.

'A few minutes before I got to the house.'

'And the day before?'

It was a lady the servant had not seen before and she had asked for Colonel Protheroe, not Mrs Protheroe.

'Was it long before Mr Redding came?'

'But the doctor says that Protheroe was shot before six-thirty.'

You know the word because you've seen it so often before

I had a tea party the day before yesterday

'Because only the day before the crime he said that anyone who murdered Colonel Protheroe would be doing the world a favour.'

Why did she go to see Protheroe the night before he was killed?'

I returned some time before five o'clock.'

'She rang at least six times before she went away.'

'I understand that you visited Colonel Protheroe the night before his death.'

There was a pause before she said, 'I had not seen him for several years.'

'Inspector Slack asked me whether I heard the shot after Mr Redding and Mrs Protheroe had left the studio or before

'Well, what about the lady who called on Colonel Protheroe the night before the murder?'

Dr Stone climbed on the train just before it started.

'So can you tell me anything about the lady who called to see Colonel Protheroe the night before he died.'

But she's upset, so please go and talk to her.' And she pushed me into the kitchen before I could argue.

And then, before he's even been buried, his daughter comes here and says I don't do my work properly.'

All these things were in the attic when I married Lucius and I've never looked at them before

'So, she must have dropped it before

She had picked up the paper and read it before I could stop her

'When Lawrence came here, I told you that I had only known him slightly before

But before that, this lady looked around in a very strange way, to see if anyone had noticed her

This was just before six o'clock.'

'But I feel more confused than before.'

But before I could disagree there was an interruption

So Griselda stole the pistol and shot him before I got home.

Just before twenty past six, she walked past my garden and stopped to speak to me

We left each other before half-past six

It must be, if scientific thinking is correct, older than our world, and life on its surface began a long time before this Earth cooled down

But people are so blind that no writer, before the end of the nineteenth century, suggested that much more intelligent life had developed there than on Earth

And before we criticize them for thinking in this way, we must remember how badly we have treated not only the animals of this planet, but also other people

But luckily the heat stopped him before he could get his hands on the metal

The sun went down before anything else happened

I explained quickly that I had to leave my home, and arranged to borrow the cart, promising to bring it back before midnight

It was some time before my shock would let me struggle up into a drier position, or think of the great danger I was in.

I had never touched a dead body before, but I forced myself to turn him over and feel for his heart

It was some time before I could get to my feet again and put on some dry clothes

It was a long time before he was able to answer my questions, and the answers he gave were puzzled and came in broken sentences.

I had already decided that the area around London would be the scene of a great battle before the Martians could be destroyed.

I wanted to start at once, but the soldier had been in wars before and knew better than that

The stones under my feet were muddy and slippery, and the river was so low that I moved perhaps seven metres before I could get under the surface

That night he made up his mind to visit me, in order to see the Things before they were killed

There had never been such a large or fast movement of war equipment in England before.

Certainly people were excited by the news, whatever they had felt before

The Ripley gunners had never been in action before

For a day and a half he stayed up there, tired, hungry and burnt by the sun before it was safe to come down

A kilometer before the village the front wheel of the bicycle broke

They were taken through Barnet and were more than a kilometer beyond the centre of the town before they could fight their way across to the other side of the road.

She had never been out of England before; she would rather die than be friendless in a foreign country

As soon as the curate caught up with me, we saw either the fighting-machine we had seen before or another one, far away across the fields

It was nearly eleven o'clock before we felt brave enough to go out again

We sat in the kitchen in the dark and had a meal of cold food, and just before midnight there was a blinding flash of green light followed by the loudest bang I have ever heard

I had seen the Martians themselves once before, but only for a short time, and then the sight had almost made me sick

The night before last I saw some lights up in the air

But before dawn my courage returned, and while the stars were still in the sky I turned again towards Regent's Park

I got onto the grass before the sun rose

I remembered how I could not concentrate that morning, hardly a month before, and how I had stopped work to get my newspaper from the newsboy

In that case, the cylinder could be destroyed before it was cool enough for the Martians to come out, or they could be killed by guns as soon as the door opened

And it is strange, too, to stand on Primrose Hill, as I did only a day before writing this last chapter

'"I have not been here before."

We did not say another word about the case until late that night at Holmes' house in Baker Street, just before Holmes went to bed.

I said, 'If I tell you what is wrong with me, you will die before I finish

'Why didn't you tell me before?' I said

He studied a map of the maze before going in

Leave the steering to me, before we all drown.'

The next morning we went swimming before breakfast.

'But you said eighteen before,' George said.

We put up the canvas cover before lunch

She knows it will take some time before she'll be brave enough to ask for things like that from him

And I had to finish it before I could answer you, no?'

That was a few months before the coup

Mercy left her new place before anybody could throw her out

God is good, he brought the coup before her sister's affair became widely known and ruined her name...

On the evening before I left for Cumberland, I went to say goodbye to my mother and sister

Sorry for not answering you before

I had always known this, and I had never before felt anything more than a teacher's interest in my students

He was chosen by her father just before he died

Go before Sir Percival Glyde arrives.'

He told us that Mrs Catherick, Anne's mother, had been a servant in his family for many years before leaving to get married

If you die before your aunt Eleanor - Madame Fosco - she'll inherit ten thousand pounds of that money

'You've been so honest that I value you even more than I did before.'

There are things now that she will not discuss with me - her husband, her married life - but before we kept no secrets from each other.

I have never before met a man like Count Fosco

Mr Gilmore always asked me to read documents before I signed them.'

Sir Percival returned yesterday just before lunch

Madame Fosco would only inherit the money if Laura died before she did

Standing before me - beside her own grave - was Laura, Lady Glyde!

'Please can I see the register of marriages in this church for the years just before 1804?' I asked.

'Not the one before me - his name was Catherick - but the one before him

'Did you say that the parish clerk before you was called Catherick?' I asked in surprise.

At the inquest the next day, the parish clerk said that the key to the vestry had gone missing just before the fire

'I've never seen him before.'

The Count's face - which had been happy a few seconds before - was suddenly full of fear! He stood up and quickly left the theatre

'I was a leader before I left Italy

Why should he listen to a mad woman? I told him that Anne was even more confused than before; she now believed she was Lady Glyde

I copied down the words on the gravestone before it was removed.

Mary was writing about women and the vote a hundred years before women started fighting for it

She wrote about the last days before her school closed

However, the number of women working outside the home was still higher than before

She worked for Google before becoming the first woman COO at Facebook.

She did many things that women were not able to do before, like being an MP

The next year, she flew to 14,000 feet, higher than any other woman before

But the programme was stopped before the women could finish their last test

More than 700 million women in the world today were married before the age of eighteen

250 million were married before fifteen!

For example, 32 percent of girls in Zimbabwe get married before they are eighteen years old

Loveness had two children before she was eighteen

But thanks to the women in this book - and others - women are now much more equal in society than they have ever been before.

An old friar is standing before the magistrate L The old friar is in chains