Russian

Alternative forms

• пе́редо ‎(péredo) (before awkward consonant clusters)

Preposition

пе́ред • ‎(péred)

1. in front of, before
2. (right or immediately) before

Usage notes

The preposition takes nouns in the instrumental case.
Перед and до have similar meanings, but they are not interchangeable. When speaking about time ...

до (до момента) can mean quite a long time, whereas перед (перед моментом) means just before the very moment.

Examples:

Давай встретимся до работы (let’s meet before work, which means any time between now and when we start work, and the meeting could be anywhere).

Давай встретимся перед работой (let’s meet before work, which means "just before we start work", "immediately before work", and probably at the job site).

When speaking about space ...

До города ещё далеко (the city is still far away, measured from here to there).

Я дошёл до перекрёстка (I reached the crossroads, going from here to there).

Перед союзом «что» ставится запятая (a comma is placed before the conjunction "что", meaning immediately before that word).

The preposition перед can be combined with самым. For example, Мы приготовились к екзаменам перед самым обедом. (We had prepared for the exams just very immediately before the lunch.). Sentences with перед самым use perfective verbs. Compare to sentences with perfective verbs while using the ordinary перед, it has a much shorter interval between the completed action/event and the particular action/event that the перед самым modifies. Hence, перед самым has a bigger emphasis meaning-wise than the ordinary перед.

Synonyms

• пред ‎(pred), предо ‎(predo)

Derived terms

• пе́ред тем как ‎(péred tem kak)

Noun

пе́ред • ‎(péred) m inan ‎(genitive пе́реда, nominative plural переда́, genitive plural передо́в)

1. front, fore-part

Declension

Antonyms

• зад ‎(zad)

Related terms

• пере́дний ‎(perédnij)
• пере́дник ‎(perédnik)
• передово́й ‎(peredovój)
• передо́к ‎(peredók)
• перёд ‎(perjód)

References

• Černyx, P. Ja. (1999), “перед”, in Istoriko-etimologičeskij slovarʹ russkovo jazyka [Historical-Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language] (in Russian), volume 2, 3rd reprint edition, Moscow: Russkij jazyk, page 21