A2
之前 and 之後 — before and after
How Cantonese orders “before” and “after” clauses, why the marker follows what it refers to, and the 先 and 至 alternatives.
English puts before and after at the front of the clause they govern. Cantonese puts them at the end, following the event they refer to.
食飯之前，記得洗手。
Sik6faan6 zi1cin4, gei3dak1 sai2sau2.
Before you eat, remember to wash your hands.
放工之後，我哋去飲嘢。
Fong3gung1 zi1hau6, ngo5dei6 heoi3 jam2je5.
After work, we’ll go for a drink.
Read them in order — eat rice, before that — and the shape comes out. The event is named first and its position in time second, which is the same wide-to-narrow instinct that governs dates and addresses.
以前 for “in the past”
之前 is before that, relative to something named. 以前 is formerly, with no reference point, and it opens a sentence about how things used to be.
我以前住喺香港。
Ngo5 ji5cin4 zyu6 hai2 Hoeng1gong2.
I used to live in Hong Kong.
Note there is no 咗 — a habit that held for years is a standing state, not a completed action.
跟住 — and then
For the next thing in a sequence, 跟住 is what people actually say. It is built on 住 and means following on.
我食完飯，跟住去睇戲。
Ngo5 sik6jyun4 faan6, gan1zyu6 heoi3 tai2hei3.
I ate, and then went to the cinema.
Against 先 and 至
先 and 先至 also order two events, and they add a judgement that 之後 does not. 食完飯之後去 is a plain sequence; 食完飯先至去 insists that the eating has to come first.
食完飯先至去。
Sik6jyun4 faan6 sin1zi3 heoi3.
We’re not going until we’ve eaten.