1106: Before- and After-Clause Dec 19, 2017

English does have grammatical tense, but sometimes this is not effected from the semantics of a clause. One type of such a clause is the "before-clause" or "after-clause", which indicate action prior to or following another that would be indicated at another point in the sentence, but is not in the past-tense. In the sentence, "before/after buying [present tense] groceries, he went [past tense] to work", the use of the adverb signals clearly enough that the action happened at a different time than the present, but the present tense is nevertheless used. Other constructions, such as 'having bought..." use the past tense in the ordinary way, so the before-clauses are rather exceptional in English, as a sort of semantic quirk. It should be noted that just because a clause has 'before' or 'after' that does not make it a before- or after-clause, such as in "after having bought..." which does not have the nonpast verbal form of the earlier after-clause.
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