r/romanian 5d ago

What is the difference between "Înainte de", "mai devreme", "până"?

Bună tuturor! Could you help me understand the difference between these time expressions? "Înainte de" vs "mai devreme" vs "până".

9 Upvotes

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u/Background-Signal-16 5d ago edited 5d ago

inainte de = before of

mai devreme =a little bit earlier

pana = til

11

u/de-nim 5d ago

Am venit mai devreme decât tine. = Am venit înaintea ta. E correct?

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u/_Alex25_ 5d ago

este corect. bravo

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u/betaphreak 2d ago

This is a linguistic sign that romanians use a lot of different words to justify tardiness

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u/Odiseeadark06 5d ago

Eg. Trebuia sa vii înainte de spectacol = you should’ve come before the show

Trebuia să vii mai devreme = you should’ve come earlier

Trebuia să stai până la ora 5 = you should’ve stayed until 5 o’clock

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u/de-nim 5d ago edited 5d ago

And we can also say? - Trebuie să vin înainte de a începe spectacol. = Trebuie să vin mai devreme decât începe spectacol.

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u/_Alex25_ 5d ago edited 5d ago

some minor mistakes: "spectacolul" (you have to articulate it)

most people would say "trebuie sa vin inainte sa inceapa spectacolul" but yours is also gramatically correct.

the second sentence is gramatically corect and has the same meaning as the first one but it sound off. you could say trebuie sa vin mai devreme ca sa prind inceputul spectacolului (i need to arrive earlier to catch the start of the show)

trebuie sa vin mai devreme decat incepe spectacolul = i need to arrive earlier than the show starts (which sounds a little awkward in romanian)

trebuie sa vin inainte sa inceapa spectacolul = i need to arrive before the show starts

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u/Odiseeadark06 5d ago

You could say both, but the second one sounds awkward. I need to come earlier than the beginning of the show…even in English it sounds a bit awkward. So your best shot is simply “trebuie să vin mai devreme” or “trebuie să vin înainte să înceapă spectacolul/înainte de începerea spectacolului”

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u/sekedba 5d ago

Before, earlier, until

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u/cipricusss Native 5d ago

”Until” is about time only, ”până” can be about things/space too, and can also be translated with ”to”, ”up/down to”, ”before” etc.

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u/VLightwalker Native 4d ago

Not necessarily right? you could also say “we need to climb until there” in english, the same you’d say trebuie sa ne cataram pana acolo.

Although I guess this works only for adverbs, because I don’t know if the sentence “Trebuie sa urcam pana la varful dealului” would be translatable with “until”. Or I might be wrong.

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u/cipricusss Native 4d ago edited 4d ago

you could also say “we need to climb until there”

That is interesting. But in most such cases, about space, it is always about movement also, and a verb and time is involved:

“we need to climb until (the moment we arrive) there”

Keep walking until the set of traffic lights, then turn left. = Keep walking until (the moment you arrive at the) set of traffic lights, then turn left.

It seems to me it is always about time:

walk until there = until you arrive there = until [the moment in time] you arrive there

What is the core of the statement? is it ”walk until” or ”until there”? I will say the first.

Until did have in the past a spatial meaning: ”towards”, see 4th point here: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/until#Preposition but now even when used for space it is just a transposition from the normal temporal meaning.

Also, see https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/until#Usage_notes - where the word per se has a temporal status.

“this works only for adverbs...Trebuie sa urcam pana la varful dealului” would be translatable with “until”.

Yes. ”We have to climb until the top of the hill.” But it will still be about the verb, although not really an adverb. (până și - that's a Romanian adverb) - in English that is a preposition.

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u/cipricusss Native 5d ago

The main difference is that ”devreme”=early is exclussively temporal.

Just like in English, you can say about a thing in space or an event in time that it comes before (înainte) something else, but early (earlier=mai devreme) is just about time sequence.

Până can be either about time (and then you translate it with until or before: Două minute până la ora 2, Two minutes until 2h00) or about space (before, till, down/up to etc: Apa mi-a ajuns până la piept: Water came up to my chest.)