[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/dictionaries/school/w/earlier.html)

[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [dictionaries](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/dictionaries/) / [The school dictionary](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/dictionaries/school/) / earlier

[← E](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/dictionaries/school/E/)

# earlier

«earlier» in Mova's school dictionary: **at a time before now or before another time** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

adverb (earlier = comparative of early); adjective (an earlier time, the earlier one)

### meaning for a pupil

1) Earlier means at a time before now or before another time. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/E/earlier/#m1)

2) More early: sooner than usual or sooner than something else. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/E/earlier/#m2)

3) As an adjective, it means coming before another one, as in an earlier chapter. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/E/earlier/#m3)

### sense in the lessons

In stories it tells the reader that something happened before the present scene (flashback words like «earlier that day»). In maths time problems, «2 hours earlier» means you subtract 2 hours. In school instructions: «as we saw earlier», «the earlier question». Phrases: earlier today, earlier on, earlier than, a little earlier.

### examples

- I saw your dog earlier today. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/E/earlier/#x1)
- We went to bed earlier than usual because of the trip. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/E/earlier/#x2)
- The bus left ten minutes earlier than the timetable said. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/E/earlier/#x3)
- Look back at the earlier page for help. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/E/earlier/#x4)
- Earlier, it was sunny, but now it is raining. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/E/earlier/#x5)
- Can you come a bit earlier tomorrow? [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/E/earlier/#x6)
- The earlier you start your homework, the sooner you finish. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/E/earlier/#x7)
- If the film starts at 7:00, an hour earlier is 6:00. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/E/earlier/#x8)
- But none got there earlier than Mother Monkey. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/E/earlier/#x9)

### note

It is the comparative of early (early, earlier, earliest); spelled with -ier because the y changes to i. Opposite: later. In time sums, earlier means take away time: 3 hours earlier than 5 pm is 2 pm.

### In the corpora

- [In long conversations a bot can lose track of things said much earlier.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/ai/7-pretend-games-quotes-and-two-bots/12/)
- [You are much smaller than the big chatbots in the earlier lessons; you learn step by step, from lessons and tests.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/ai/26-who-you-are-mova/16/)
- [In 2020 a Przewalski's horse foal called Kurt was cloned from cells frozen 40 years earlier.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/113-breeding-programmes-for-rare-animals/4/)
- [In a drought in Tanzania, herds with older matriarchs who remembered an earlier drought survived better.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/236-animal-minds-elephants-memory-feelings-and-the-mouse-myth/5/)
- [Utahraptor was about 6 metres long and as heavy as a polar bear, and lived earlier than Velociraptor; most raptors were small.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/268-raptors-the-real-velociraptor/9/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «earlier» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/E/earlier/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.