Word meaning: Before, After?

[Gnome]

I've been studying sentences that deal with people doing something before or after something else. At least I think thats what it means, however I'm quite confused as the the proper meaning. So here are two sentences, can someone help me figure out exactly what they mean cause I'm a bit lost as to which means before and which means after or if I'm way off all together.

Ta gong zuo yi qian he ka fei

他工作以前喝咖非

Their job before they drink coffee ?

Ta chi wu fan yi hou kan shu

他吃午饭以后看书

Their lunch after they read a book ?

The words that confuse me the most are: qian (前), hou (后). Maybe I'm reading the sentence structure wrong?

[muyongshi]

yep, you are reading it wrong!

The words 以前 and 以后 are all time markers that are the equivalent to the English counterparts, before and after.

The first sentence:

他工作以前喝咖非

Means that he had coffee before he [started] working. So the sentence is: he works before drank coffee.

In Chinese the structure will always first say the event that is being preceded or postceded by the second event. While in English structure we would but the time marker near the beginning. In Chinese though, it is necessary to come after that first event otherwise it would change the meaning to be in the past, or in the future ie 他以前工作.... would be indicating what you are saying is his previous work was.....

Think of it like the first event mentioned is the anchor or the cue for the fluid event.. What did you do before work? 我工作前喝咖啡. What did you do after work? 我工作后喝咖啡.

So the same is true of the second example. After lunch he is going to read.