Antes de que vs. antes de

Question

The lesson explanation says: Antes de que and Antes que are always followed by the subjunctive.

But several ‘antes de” sample sentences aren’t in subjunctive:

Antes de empezar a bailar, había bebido mucho.Antes de haber empezado a bailar, había bebido mucho

So “antes de” isn’t just a shortening of “antes de que” but follows different rules?

Please explain. Thank you.

Answer

Antes que and antes de que are not the same as antes de. Verbs following antes de are in the infinitive because the verb follows a proposition.

There is a lesson on this which you can refer to. Using antes de /después de [noun/infinitive] for before/after [something/doing something]