This is the 208th most frequent Indonesian word.
sebelumnya
"Previously" or "before."
In this sentence, 'sebelumnya' indicates an action that took place prior to another event, emphasizing a temporal sequence.
Saya sudah menyiapkan buku sebelumnya.
I had already prepared the book beforehand.
Here, 'sebelumnya' is used to refer to an antecedent time, posing a kind of retrospection.
Dia bertanya apakah saya sudah pernah ke sana sebelumnya.
He asked if I had ever been there before.
In this context, 'sebelumnya' refers to an earlier point within a discourse or text.