Before, Enough – Sufficient & Adequate

A.

‘Before’ – any time before now

Before means: at some unknown time before now. It does not say when. Therefore we would say:

I know that chap. I’ve met him somewhere before. Have you been here before? ~ No, I’ve never been here before. This is my first time.

‘Ago’ – at a certain time before now

Ago tells us how long before the present time something happened. It tells us when and gives us a time or a date. Because we are referring to a specific time in the past, the simple past is used:

Your mother phoned five minutes ago. Can you phone her back?

I saw her for the first time at film festival in Cannes some twenty years ago.

Ago always counts back from the present time. Note that if we are counting back from a past time, before or earlier or previously are used, not ago:

Last year I went back to my hometown that I had left ten years before and discovered that the house I grew up in was no longer standing. (= left home 10 years ago)

B.

Enough – sufficient, Adequate

I. Enough (where the second syllable is pronounced as in puff or stuff) and sufficient are very similar semantically, meaning as much as is needed:

I don’t have enough time to finish….

We have sufficient evidence to…..

II. Adequate is also close in meaning to enough and sufficient. It suggests that something is good enough or large enough for a particular purpose:

This country will never maintain an adequate supply of trained teachers if so many leave the profession after four or five years.

This little car is perfectly adequate for any driving you need to do in town.

His computer skills were adequate for the type of work required of him.

III. Inadequate – insufficient: Note that the negative of sufficient and adequate can be formed with the prefix in -. For the negative of enough we have to use not:

The level of funding available for the training of teachers is inadequate. I have insufficient resources to be able to deal effectively with this problem. We don’t have enough milk if everybody wants milkshake.

IV. Enough can also be used, as:

In this climate it’s not warm enough to go out without a jacket in the evening.

You’ve missed him, I’m afraid. You didn’t get up early enough.

I didn’t work hard enough. So I was unsuccessful in the exam.

I didn’t revise enough. So I didn’t pass the exam.

I’ve only saved $250. Will that be enough for this type of holiday?

Some more dressing on your salad? ~ Oh no, I have quite enough, thanks.

I’ve quite enough of this fruit salad, thanks. It’s a bit too sweet for my liking.

I didn’t read it all, but I read enough of the report to get the main idea.

I answered all the questions, but I didn’t get enough of them right to pass the driving test.

I don’t have enough time to finish reading this report before the meeting. But I have sufficient information to know what the outcome should be.

You’ve missed him, I’m afraid. You didn’t get up early enough.