Is it correct to use "we" or "us" at the end of the following sentence: How did they know before us?

Answer 1

Use "we." To check on which to use, finish the sentence with the verb that would follow:

How did they know before us knew? OR

How did they know before we knew?

Use "we" because it is the nominative form of the pronoun. "Us" is the objective form and has to follow a noun, verb or preposition to be used.

Answer 2

The sentence is incomplete; that's where the confusion is coming from.
The full referent in reality would be--
They know something, and we know the same something. So I need to ask, "How did they learn about it before we learned about it"?

In the shorthand sentence "How did they know it before
us?" You can say it that way, but it isn't really grammatical; so the better version would be, "How did they know it before we did?"

Answer 3

I feel the sentence reads best as "How did they know before we did?"

Answer 4

"We" would never be used here. It's "us". Why? Because this is an apposition (phrase contrasting two different things). The second part of such an apposition always takes the accusative case ("me", "him", "her", "us", "them"). "How did he get here before me?", NOT "How did he get here before I?"

It is technically correct to use the nominative case ("I", "he", "she", "we", "they") in phrases where two words referring to the same entity are connected by a copula ("is" or "was"), such as "I realised it was she". However, this is now considered old-fashioned, fussy and pedantic, so you would be unwise to do so in most contexts.

Answer 5

How did they know before us?
How did they know before we did?

Answer 6

yez.. to use we u must say did, but for kind of sentences like that i prefer use us to we

Answer 7

i would use us.