avant que

Conjunction

 * 1) before

Usage notes

 * Along with and,  is one of the three conjunctions of time that take the subjunctive in prescriptive French; all three refer to expected events in the future. Colloquially,  may also take the subjunctive, but this is discouraged by language authorities.
 * In written French, the verb that follows takes the  particle, which does not negate the verb and serves no grammatical function.