摘要：据Collins词典解释，“before”的含义为“if something happens before a particular date, time, or event, it happens earlier than that date, time,

据Collins词典解释，“before”的含义为“if something happens before a particular date, time, or event, it happens earlier than that date, time, or event”，与“prior to”同义；“by”的含义为“if something happens by a particular time, it happens at or before that time”，与“not later than”同义。从上面的解释可以看出，“before”不包括某一特定时间，在某一特定时间到了的情况下，必须已经完成某一行为，意为“在某一特定时间之前”；而“by”却包括某一特定时间，也就是说，某一行为可以在某一特定时间之前完成，也可以在某一特定时间完成，总之，某一特定时间即为最后期限，意为“不迟于某一特定时间”，但是，在实际翻译中，除了会译为“不迟于”，有时也会译为“在……之前”。

例句1：

原文：

委托开发或者合作开发完成的技术秘密成果的使用权、转让权以及收益的分配办法，由当事人约定；没有约定或者约定不明确，依据本法第五百一十条的规定仍不能确定的，在没有相同技术方案被授予专利权前，当事人均有使用和转让的权利。但是，委托开发的研究开发人不得在向委托人交付研究开发成果之前，将研究开发成果转让给第三人。

（《中华人民共和国民法典》第八百六十一条）

译文：

The right to use and the right to transfer a work product containing technological know-how accomplished through commissioned development or cooperative development, as well as the method for distributing the proceeds thereof, shall be agreed by the parties. Where there is no such an agreement between the parties or the agreement is unclear, if it cannot be determined according to the provisions of Article 510 of this Code, all the parties have the right to use and transfer the said work product, as long as no patent right has been granted on a same technological solution, except that a researcher-developer of a commissioned development may not transfer the work product to a third person before he delivers it to the client.

例句2：

By the end of the two-year period, funding under the guaranteed minimum which has yet to be matched by the concerned institutions will be opened up for allocation to match donations of other institutions above the floor on a first-come-first-served basis.

在两年时间完结时，院校如未能完全配对“最低款额”，剩余部分将公开让其他筹得超过“最低款额”的院校以先到先得原则申请。

来源：笑怡教育分享