要是你之前告诉我那件事该多好。

If only you had told me that some time ago.

《柯林斯英汉双解大词典》

等等，我明白你的意思了，但在我们讨论欧洲人的定居如何影响生态系统之前，告诉我，海狸生活在怎样的环境中？

Wait, I see where you are heading with this, but before we go into how European settlement affected the ecosystem, tell me this—what kind of environment do beavers live in?

youdao

要是你之前告诉我就好了。

If only you told me that before.

youdao

I can tell you the answer, but that's because I've cheated, run the program before.

我可以告诉你答案，但这是因为我作弊了，我之前运行过一次程序。

麻省理工公开课 - 计算机科学及编程导论课程节选

So John, I told you earlier I was a runner,

关于约翰，我之前告诉过你我是个爱跑步的人，

在马拉松认识的朋友 - SpeakingMax英语口语达人