Present or past subjunctive

Question

Thanks for trying to help Chris but I'm afraid it still doesn't clarify it. You said that it was asking for the present subjunctive in your 1st answer but in your second answer you say "The PAST subjunctive is used here to express that between" actions " 1) and 2) there is no temporal overlap. "

Perhaps if I ask it a different way

The English version is "Before I started to learn french". 'Started" is in the past tense, therefore shouldn't I translate it into the past subjunctive ie "avant que je n'aie commencé à apprendre le Français"

Thanks

Accepted Answer

Hi Vikki,
You can in fact use both the present and past subjunctive after 'avant que' and both would be correct, depending on the register you want to achieve.
I will re-post my answer to a similar question -
https://french.kwiziq.com/questions/view/elle-avait-fait-ses-devoirs-avant-qu-il-n-arrive
Bonne Continuation!

Answer

It isn't so much the tense of the two clauses that determines the tense of the subjunctive. It is their temporal relationship. 
Here is a link to a youtube video, wich, starting at 1:40 minutes, explains what I mean: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDwsai4Ngq0&t=100s