Thread: How to say: Did you know this song before it was famous? (referring to trolololo guy)

Okay my attempt was;

Знаешь ли эту песню перед этим было знаменитым?

My chain of thought;

[Знаешь ли] Presently tense, 2nd person, do you know?

[эту песно] using declined этот as I am talking about a specific thing. Feminine accusative

[перед] Prepositional which modifies the following word to instrumental...

[этим] Unchanging это in instrumental form as "IT" rather than "THIS" feels more natural in English.

[было] to mean was, and as we are now using IT i thought I would decline to neutral.

[знаменитым] and finally famous in the instrumental case as I was told that past/future (predicates) i think they are called, are in the instrumental case, again neutral due to этим being used.

Now, slaughter me for bad grammar and tell me where my logic is wrong.

part 1

did you know? - past tense - знал ли ты? or ты знал?

result: Знал ли ты эту песню?.. or Ты знал эту песню?..

part 2

before it was famous - in Russian this construction sounds like 'before it became famous'

before - not only перед тем, как but also до того, как

it means песня - feminine (she) - so она

was famous is replaced by became famous - стала знаменитой

result: до того, как она стала знаменитой

altogether

Знал ли ты эту песню, до того, как она стала знаменитой?

or

Ты знал эту песню, до того, как она стала знаменитой?

Thanks for your reply, could you give me a little more into the middle part though as it is completely confusing me.

I understand До as before and it causes the following to take the Genitive, right? But then how come the Genitive Masculine/Neutral is being used rather than the feminine "той"?

So literally it is "before that" and then followed by "как" which throws me off even more... before that, like, it became famous??? [до того, как она стала знаменитой?

here you have a сompound interrogative sentence, whos parts are connected by the conjunction до того, как
it's a fixed expression and its pronoun тот has fixed declination in Genitive as того due to presence of preposition до as you rightfully noted

so you simply have to remember this conjunction, its structure isn't unique in Russian, in compound sentences all conjunctions are formed by this or similar pattern through the use of как and что (чтобы)

потому, что/как
благодаря тому, что
после того, как
тогда, как
для того, чтобы

so summarizing, что (чтобы) is used in conjunctions of causative-consecutive relationship between the main and the secondary sentences, while как is used in conjunctions of tensed relationship between them

i hope i don't overgeneralize here and distinction by this principle is pretty accurate and consistent

I'm really sorry to ask cause I am positive you have gave an amazing explanation, I just lack the grammar knowledge of my own language for it to translate.

causative-consecutive / tensed relationship. Any examples of these kind of sentences so I can better understand what this means.

And I understand the first part, but what would you say In your opinion this translates to in English, (I know we could simply say; Did you know this song before it became famous?) but I mean in terms of how как has several different english meanings and so does до. So which would you assign to each if you had to translate it literally, cause как as a conjunction can still mean Like, As, How and What

could be that i didn't use the most appropriate definitions

what i meant was

cause and consequence relationship is when the action or a state in the first sentence describes the consequence of the action or a state in the second sentence

At 4 I didn't go to school (1) because (conjunction) I was too young (2)

В 4 года я не ходил в школу (1), потому что (conjunction) был слишком мал (2).

time relationship is when the actions or states described in the two sentences occur at different times and conjunction denotes their relative order

Before (conjunction) I go to sleep (2) I do some Yoga (1)
OR
I do some Yoga (1) before (conjunction) I go to sleep (2)

Перед тем, как лечь спать, я занимаюсь йогой
ИЛИ
Я занимаюсь йогой перед тем, как лечь спать.

here как by itself has no meaning, it's a part of a solid conjunction перед тем, как and only connects two sentences

In English you can also say

Before going to sleep I do some Yoga

English gerund into Russian is often translated by a finite clause (a phrase with a verb in certain tense) or infinitive clause (a phrase with a verb in infinitive form) and will necessitate building this type of compound sentence