Before / after: 以前 and 以后

Structure (action) + 以前 / 以后

以前 (yǐqián, "before") and 以后 (yǐhòu, "after") go AFTER what they frame: 下课以后 = "after class". On their own they mean "in the past / in the future": 以前我不会说中文 = "I couldn’t speak Chinese before". As with 的时候, Chinese puts the marker at the end of the block.

Examples

以yǐ前qián我wǒ不bù会huì说shuō中zhōng文wén。
I couldn’t speak Chinese before.
下xià课kè以yǐ后hòu我wǒ们men去qù吃chī饭fàn。
After class we’ll go eat.
三sān年nián以yǐ前qián他tā来lái过guò这zhè里lǐ。
Three years ago he came here.

Levels are indicative: they follow the standard Chinese Grammar Wiki (AllSet Learning) progression, not an official HSK 3.0 mapping. We never assign levels by eye.

This point and the other 370, with audio on every example, inside Wanyu.