Confused Words - BEFORE & AGO

Hi, my name is Rebecca and in today's lesson we are going to talk about the difference

between two little words "ago" and "before" because many students confuse the two and

sometimes use it in the wrong way.

Let's look at the first example, ok?

"Twenty years ago", for example, we could say "John moved to Canada twenty years ago".

That would be the correct use of the word "ago" to describe how long it has been since

something happened, correct?

So "John moved to Canada twenty years ago".

The mistake that is sometimes made by students is that instead of saying "twenty years ago",

they say "twenty years before".

Now that would not be right.

What would be right is if you said, for example, "John moved to Canada twenty years before

I did", right?

You could add something and then using "before" would be correct, but if you are saying only

that much, then you say "John moved to Canada twenty years ago", alright?

Or "John graduated from university five months ago", right?

Not "John graduated from university five months before" because by itself we can't use "before".

You could say "John graduated from university five months before I did", right?

Or "I left the house ten minutes ago".

That means it has been ten minutes since I left the house, correct?

But you could not say, you should not say "I left the house ten minutes before".

By itself that would be incorrect.

You could say "I left the house ten minutes before my son did", right?

So this is the little difference between "ago" and "before", quite important, very common

mistake, so if you're making it, don't feel bad, you're not alone, it is a mistake that

is made by many students, but hopefully after this lesson you've had a little chance to

think about it and to see how best to structure the use of these two words, okay?

So if you have any questions about this or anything else to do with English, please feel

free to write to us at www.engvid.com.

Thanks very much, good luck with your English, bye for now.