{"id":4629,"date":"2011-07-13T00:33:21","date_gmt":"2011-07-13T00:33:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/?p=4629"},"modified":"2016-04-06T00:39:36","modified_gmt":"2016-04-06T00:39:36","slug":"common-errors-in-english-before-ago-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/common-errors-in-english-before-ago-back\/","title":{"rendered":"Common Errors in English: Before, Ago, Back"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3 style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">Don\u2019t say:<\/span> \u201cI sent the letter two months before.\u201d<\/h3>\n<h3 style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"color: #008000;\">Say:<\/span> \u201cI sent the letter two months ago.\u201d<\/h3>\n<h3 style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"color: #008000;\">Or:<\/span> \u201cI sent the letter two months back.\u201d (informal)<\/h3>\n<p><strong>Ago<\/strong> and <strong>back<\/strong> are used for <strong>past times from the present moment.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Before<\/strong> is used for <strong>past times from another time in the past.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Here are some examples of <strong>before:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Yesterday I missed my train. I got to the train station at 7:10, but the train had left ten\u00a0minutes before.<\/li>\n<li>I was very happy when I got this job last year, because I had lost my previous job six\u00a0months before.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"alert\">\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Clear up your doubts about confusing words&#8230; and use English more confidently!<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/courses.espressoenglish.net\/600-confusing-english-words-explained-e-book\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-10529\" src=\"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/600-confusing-words-226x300.png\" alt=\"600+ Confusing English Words Explained\" width=\"226\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/600-confusing-words-226x300.png 226w, https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/600-confusing-words-772x1024.png 772w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 226px) 100vw, 226px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><center><a href=\"https:\/\/courses.espressoenglish.net\/600-confusing-english-words-explained-e-book\/\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"elementor-button rounded large blue\"><strong>Click here to learn more about this e-book<\/strong><\/a><\/center>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Don\u2019t say: \u201cI sent the letter two months before.\u201d Say: \u201cI sent the letter two months ago.\u201d Or: \u201cI sent the letter two months back.\u201d (informal) Ago and back are used for past times from the present moment. Before is used for past times from another time in the past. Here are some examples of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-confusing-words-2","category-grammar"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.1 (Yoast SEO v27.1.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Common Errors in English: Before, Ago, Back - Espresso English<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Don\u2019t say: \u201cI sent the letter two months before.\u201d Say: \u201cI sent the letter two months ago.\u201d Or: \u201cI sent the letter two months back.\u201d (informal) Ago and\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/common-errors-in-english-before-ago-back\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Common Errors in English: Before, Ago, Back\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Don\u2019t say: \u201cI sent the letter two months before.\u201d Say: \u201cI sent the letter two months ago.\u201d Or: \u201cI sent the letter two months back.\u201d (informal) Ago and\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/common-errors-in-english-before-ago-back\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Espresso English\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-07-13T00:33:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-04-06T00:39:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/600-confusing-words-226x300.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Shayna Oliveira\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Shayna Oliveira\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/common-errors-in-english-before-ago-back\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/common-errors-in-english-before-ago-back\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Shayna Oliveira\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/#\/schema\/person\/b92f17848e26e2ccdb617df724d13300\"},\"headline\":\"Common Errors in English: Before, Ago, Back\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-07-13T00:33:21+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-04-06T00:39:36+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/common-errors-in-english-before-ago-back\/\"},\"wordCount\":125,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/common-errors-in-english-before-ago-back\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/600-confusing-words-226x300.png\",\"articleSection\":[\"Confusing Words\",\"Grammar\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/common-errors-in-english-before-ago-back\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/common-errors-in-english-before-ago-back\/\",\"name\":\"Common Errors in English: Before, Ago, Back - 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