Hello, everybody. Neste episódio, eu falo sobre a diferença entre as palavras do inglês early e soon. Se você não é ouvinte dos podcasts porque ainda não consegue compreendê-los, me escreva em analuiza @ inglesonline.com.br e diga se gostaria de uma lição aqui no blog sobre esse tópico!
Aqui, early aparece como advérbio
Transcrição
Hello, everybody. This is the new episode of the Inglesonline podcast. Please subscribe to this podcast using the Podcasts app for iPhone or iPad, or listen to the episodes using the Inglesonline Android app. Thanks for all the comments at the iTunes store and if you haven’t yet left a comment for this podcast please do so: the more comments for the Inglesonline podcast, the more people will find out about it and listen to the episodes. Thanks for telling your friends, your neighbours, your family and keep listening.
Let’s get right into it. Today I talk about common ways to use soon and early. Are they the same? Are they different? Stay with me and you’ll find out. Listen to this: I want to join a gym class, but it starts so early in the morning! I don’t think I can wake up that early. The gym class I’m talking about starts at 6AM. To me, that’s really early. What do you think? I’d have to wake up around 5: 20AM, which is so early in the morning. The problem is, I go to bed around midnight, which is kinda late. So, for me, to wake up so early would be a bit difficult.
Early is an adjective – most of the time – and we use it to talk about the first few hours, or the first few days, or the first few months… Or just some time near the beginning of a period. For example: if the morning officially starts at 6AM, then we can say 6:30 is pretty early in the morning. 7AM is early. 11AM is not early. We can say that the second day of January is early January. Classes will start in early January. That could be anywhere from the first to the tenth day of January, let’s say. Classes will start early in January. The 16th day is not early in January, but the 4th is. If someone tells you they’re going to buy a car in early 2016, they’re probably gonna do it in January, February or March. So, of course, January is earlier in 2015 than June. 7AM is earlier in the morning than 9AM. I had scheduled an appointment for 11AM on Wednesday, but my dentist rang me and asked if we could meet a bit earlier in the morning – earlier. Around 10:15, which is earlier than 11.
And how about soon? Soon is an adverb, so it qualifies actions. If something happened too soon, that means the amount of time it took for that thing too happen was too short – in your opinion, of course. So that thing happened too soon. For example, you think your cousin and her fiancé got married too soon. They have only known each other for two months. That is too soon to get married, you think. By the way, they got married in early September – it was the fourth of September, and the wedding took place early in the morning. Yep, eight o’clock. So maybe something happened too soon. Maybe the car you just bought broke down as you were driving it to work – that is too soon for a new car to break down! And your neighbor, Mrs. Johnson, lost her husband a few months ago. You think she should start dating again and she says “It’s too soon.” Your friend John has been learning Japanese for two weeks and it is probably too soon for him to have a conversation with a Japanese person. It’s been only two weeks!
So let’s say your friend Angela says “We have to meet soon!” She means that you and her have to meet within a short amount of time – maybe in two or three days. It can’t take too long. Angela thinks you guys should meet soon. So two days after saying that, Angela gives you a call to organise a meetup. Why two days later? Because she wanted to meet with you soon. Probably as soon as possible. The sooner, the better. And you guys actually end up meeting late at night because you’re both so busy. However your meetup occurs only forty-eight hours after your initial contact – that is a very short amount of time. So it occurs very soon after your initial contact.
Picture this: your other friend Michael wants to see you. Today is the second of April, so you suggest to meet on April 25 at 8PM. However, Michael tells you that he’s going away on vacation on April 25. He says “Let’s meet sooner than that, and it has to be earlier in the evening. I have a knitting class every night at 8PM” So what is Michael saying? He’s saying that your meeting should be sooner than April 25. It should happen before April 25. And he wants to meet with you earlier in the evening. 8PM is a bit too late for him. It has to be earlier in the evening – maybe 6, maybe 7PM.
I hope this episode has helped to clarify the difference between early and soon. Let me know if that’s the case, and if you’d like additional posts about this topic here on the blog! Talk to you next time!
Ana criou um blog de dicas de inglês em 2006, e depois de muito pesquisar o que faz alguém ganhar fluência numa segunda língua, criou seu primeiro curso de inglês em 2009.
Sim, é por aí, Felipe.
SOON tem frequentemente o sentido do nosso LOGO, mas também tem o sentido de CEDO quando estamos nos referindo a “o quanto antes”.
Vem uma dica em breve (very soon :-) ) sobre isso.
Thanks for clarifying about this tough topic but my question is about two of the words that you’ve written in your text, which are: the difference among appointment, meetup and commitment?
Um meetup é um encontro de 2 ou mais pessoas, combinado por elas… Não é pra trabalho (em geral), mas pode ser com qualquer finalidade.
Appointment é usado basicamente para o que chamamos de “consulta”. Médicos, dentistas, mas também com o contador, o advogado, com a enfermeira, algum executivo, etc. Tem um sentido mais relacionado a “horário marcado com alguém”
Commitment pode ser usado pra descrever um sentimento de compromisso com alguma coisa, e também “My commitments for today” – o que tenho agendado pra hoje.
Hi Ana, firstly I want to tell you that your posts are fantastics, in general, and I learn a lot with them. So, in regard to this post I have to confess that I had a lot of doubts with the use of early in my readings. Thank you for your help!
Ana,
acho que a pergunta do colega Sergio Rodrigues, foi em relação a EARLY e EARLIER. Entendo que EARLIER deve ser usado em situações de comparação, tais como, “January is earlier in 2015 than June”, Correto??
Aproveito para agradecer e te parabenizar por mais este material, muito bom.
Muito Obrigado, valeu!
I am still confused on how to differentiate early and earlier, even after your explanation on this post. Can I used both interchangeably?
Thanks for your time.
No, Sérgio, you can’t usem them interchangeably.
Take a look at the transcript (with no audio) and read over the examples I supplied for early and soon.
See if you can notice the difference between “early in the morning” and “they got married too soon”, and let me know.
