Before clause

Hello

I'm a learner from Japan. So I'm not sure if my answer is right linguistically. But please let me try to think over your question logically.

Suppose I was born in 1980 and I started the school in 1985. Then 'before I started the school' means the years from 1980 to 1985. So if I was asked by you : "What were you doing before you started the school", I would think of what

redkiddy,

A negative "before"-clause is extremely rare in English. If your native language is one that inserts a negative in such clauses (called a "pleonastic negative"), you'll need to remember to leave out the negative in English, and you'll need to remember that the same meaning is conveyed with the negative in your language as is conveyed without the negative in English.

Note:
[pleonastic] adj.
(used in describing about sentences) using more words than necessary.

I would agree that the second sentence does not make sense to a native English speaker (or listener). But I would also add a comment on "started the school." If you mean to ask what the person was doing before that person started attending school, I would say, "What were you doing before you started school?" If you say "started the school," to me it means that the person you are talking to wa