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I am learning English recently. Here is a sentence I am confused of:
Before going to bed, she assure herself that the door was locked.
May I ask what the part of speech is for "before" here? I think it's a preposition because it connects gerund, "going". I am not sure if my thought is right.
Its a preposition. It starts a propositional phrase (because the gerund acts as the noun)
Its an adverbial phrase because it modifies the verb - answering the question when
Another simple example is:
"I wash before eating."
"Before" is a preposition, but note that: "before going to bed" is an adverbial phrase of time. "before" is a preposition and "going to bed" is a complement to the preposition.
