пре / после + Genitive

The prepositions пре and после are essential words used to answer the question Када? (When?). In formal or written styles, након (+ genitive) is also used as a synonym for после before a noun phrase, though unlike после, након cannot stand alone as an adverb (*Видимо се након is ungrammatical; say Видимо се после!). Both пре and после can also act as standalone adverbs meaning 'earlier / beforehand' and 'later / afterwards'.

1. Case Government with Events
When pointing to an event, activity, or point in time, both prepositions govern the genitive case:

• Masculine/Neuter singular: typically -а (посао → после посла; доручак → пре доручка)
• Feminine singular in -а: -е (вечера → после вечере; кафа → пре кафе)
• Feminine nouns ending in a consonant: -и (поноћ → после поноћи; јесен → пре јесени)
• Plural nouns: typically end in -а (час → пре часова; испит → после испита)
• Pronouns: Prepositions always require full (stressed) forms rather than clitics: пре мене (before me), после тебе (after you), пре тога (before that).

2. Expressing Elapsed Time ('Ago' and 'Later')
When discussing time spans rather than events, specific time construction rules apply:

• To express 'ago' counting back from the present moment of speech, пре combines with a measure noun in the accusative of time followed by a genitive specification: пре годину дана (a year ago), пре недељу дана (a week ago), пре сат времена (an hour ago). Notice that the head time units (годину, недељу, сат) stand in the accusative, while дана and времена are genitive complements.
• When counting distinct numeric units, numerals determine the case of the counted noun: пре два сата (two hours ago), пре пет дана (five days ago).
• Word Order and Anchor Points: When counting back from the present moment ('ago'), пре stands before the time phrase (пре пет дана, not *пет дана пре). However, when establishing relative time anchored to another specific event or baseline, postposition is fully natural and standard: два дана пре тога (two days before that), три сата после (three hours later), or with adverbs such as годину дана раније (a year earlier) and годину дана касније (a year later).

3. Time vs. Spatial Sequence
While пре and после primarily express time, they can also show sequential progression along a path or trajectory (e.g., скрените десно пре моста — turn right before the bridge; апотека је одмах после семафора — the pharmacy is right after the traffic light). However, they cannot denote static spatial position: to express static 'in front of' or 'behind', always use spatial prepositions like испред or иза (e.g., испред куће, not *пре куће; иза зграде, not *после зграде).

4. Preposition vs. Clause Linker
Do not connect an entire conjugated clause directly to пре or после alone. When introducing a full clause, use standard conjunctions such as пре него што ('before') or temporal linkers like након што / пошто ('after').