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hemantS
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use of Before and Ago 25 Dec 2006, 13:38
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They went through the same internship program together 39 years before.

OR

They went through the same internship program together 39 years ago.


which is correct and why?



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use of Before and Ago 25 Dec 2006, 13:42
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hemantS
They went through the same internship program together 39 years before.

OR

They went through the same internship program together 39 years ago.


which is correct and why?
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Ago is correct. Before is used when we want to say that some event happened prior to another event.

I had breakfast 5 hours before I left for work.
I had breakfast five hours ago.
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trivikram
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use of Before and Ago 25 Dec 2006, 15:28
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ncprasad
hemantS
They went through the same internship program together 39 years before.

OR

They went through the same internship program together 39 years ago.


which is correct and why?

Ago is correct. Before is used when we want to say that some event happened prior to another event.

I had breakfast 5 hours before I left for work.
I had breakfast five hours ago.
Show more


Good one ncprasad!! :-D
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hemantS
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use of Before and Ago 25 Dec 2006, 20:34
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ncprasad
hemantS
They went through the same internship program together 39 years before.

OR

They went through the same internship program together 39 years ago.


which is correct and why?

Ago is correct. Before is used when we want to say that some event happened prior to another event.

I had breakfast 5 hours before I left for work.
I had breakfast five hours ago.
Show more


True that is what I was going by. But in US the use of 'before' is more common in such situations ---- not just colloquially- I found the above usage in Fortune magzine - Hope it was just a mistake .

or is it a correct American usage ?
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Sumithra
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use of Before and Ago 26 Dec 2006, 06:04
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hemantS
They went through the same internship program together 39 years before.

OR

They went through the same internship program together 39 years ago.


which is correct and why?
Show more


Maybe the passage refers that they are doing the same internship program again. In that case, would the before come before 39 years or after 39 years?
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tennis1ball
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use of Before and Ago 29 Dec 2006, 01:14
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before can be used as a conjunction, preceding a clause. ago can't.

before must be followed by an action, if it is preceding a non-clause, while ago must be preceded by a time period.

NO one says before 39 years, or 39 years before. probably only google translator does it. :)



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