early or earlier?
Thread poster: jyuan_us
jyuan_us
jyuan_us  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 17:00
Member (2005)
English to Chinese
+ ...
Nov 29, 2019

"In honor of the holiday, US stock, bond, and options markets and the Federal Reserve Bank will be closed on Thursday, November 28, 2019. Futures markets will be closed at 1 p.m ET. The Friday after Thanksgiving, all markets and banks will close early. Due to the modified schedule, external transfers may be delayed."

The above is a note by Etrade to its users. Do you think they should have used "earlier" instead of "early" in "all markets and banks will close early"? Why and why not
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"In honor of the holiday, US stock, bond, and options markets and the Federal Reserve Bank will be closed on Thursday, November 28, 2019. Futures markets will be closed at 1 p.m ET. The Friday after Thanksgiving, all markets and banks will close early. Due to the modified schedule, external transfers may be delayed."

The above is a note by Etrade to its users. Do you think they should have used "earlier" instead of "early" in "all markets and banks will close early"? Why and why not?
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Elizabeth Tamblin
Elizabeth Tamblin  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 22:00
French to English
Early Nov 29, 2019

"Early" in that context means "earlier than usual".

Anne Gaujard-Scott
DZiW (X)
Zibow Retailleau
Sabrina Bruna
Josephine Cassar
Daniel Williams
neilmac
 
Zibow Retailleau
Zibow Retailleau  Identity Verified
Mauritius
Local time: 02:00
English to Chinese
+ ...
Yes, early Nov 29, 2019

Agree with Elizabeth. Here is a more detailed explanation: https://ell.stackexchange.com/questions/109220/early-vs-earlier.

neilmac
 
jyuan_us
jyuan_us  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 17:00
Member (2005)
English to Chinese
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
More to ask Nov 29, 2019

Thank you for your input. I'm also wondering why it didn't specify at what time (s) they will close on that day.[Edited at 2019-11-29 18:05 GMT]

[Edited at 2019-11-29 18:05 GMT]


 
Thomas Pfann
Thomas Pfann  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 22:00
Member (2006)
English to German
+ ...
early vs. earlier than Nov 29, 2019

Because they will not all close at the same time. Some will close earlier than others (but all will close early).

MollyRose
 
jyuan_us
jyuan_us  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 17:00
Member (2005)
English to Chinese
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Is this wrong? Nov 29, 2019

Will you consider it wrong if it is written as "all markets and banks will close earlier"?

 
neilmac
neilmac
Spain
Local time: 23:00
Spanish to English
+ ...
Not wrong Nov 29, 2019

However, brevity is the soul of wit, and "earlier" has 2 letters more than "early", yet adds no more useful information. If you do use "earlier", it may give some readers the impression that there is something missing (such as, "earlier than usual")...

 
Philip Lees
Philip Lees  Identity Verified
Greece
Local time: 00:00
Greek to English
Overdue Nov 30, 2019

jyuan_us wrote:

"... Due to the modified schedule, external transfers may be delayed."



No comments on the incorrect adverbial use of "due to"? Unless it is the external transfers themselves, rather than the delay, that are a consequence of the modified schedule.

I know, I know. Everybody does it nowadays, but I still don't like it.


Paul Malone
 
Nikki Scott-Despaigne
Nikki Scott-Despaigne  Identity Verified
Local time: 23:00
French to English
English-English KudoZ? Nov 30, 2019

Just wondering if this ought not to have been posted in the English-English KudoZ section. After all, it is a language question. Just for future reference.

David Lin
 
Maxi Schwarz
Maxi Schwarz  Identity Verified
Local time: 16:00
German to English
+ ...
idiomatic Dec 1, 2019

"will be closed early" is idiomatic - it is what we are used to hearing. If I read "earlier" I'd be inclined to say "earlier than what?".

Christine Andersen
David Lin
Arabic & More
MollyRose
Michael Wetzel
 
Kay Denney
Kay Denney  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 23:00
French to English
. Dec 2, 2019

Nikki Scott-Despaigne wrote:

Just wondering if this ought not to have been posted in the English-English KudoZ section. After all, it is a language question. Just for future reference.


You're quite right.

With the cut-throat points system, leeches asking questions to translate texts where they are clearly out of depth (but billing less than the experts), I find Kudoz unbearable and I would have to be seriously bored to contemplate going back.

Yet I love endlessly discussing the ins and outs of translation, and I miss sounding out colleagues and getting proofreader feedback as when I worked at the agency. People fighting to score points is no replacement for that.

Here, jyuan-us doesn't appear to need an answer to meet a deadline, so we're able to have a leisurely discussion and truly get to the bottom of the issue. I really don't see why such questions need to be shunted off to Kudoz! In fact, I would welcome more of the same here.

[Edited at 2019-12-02 20:17 GMT]


David Lin
Zibow Retailleau
Arabic & More
 
Michael Wetzel
Michael Wetzel  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 23:00
German to English
I would say "earlier" is actually wrong and not just less than optimal. Dec 3, 2019

jyuan_us wrote:

"In honor of the holiday, US stock, bond, and options markets and the Federal Reserve Bank will be closed on Thursday, November 28, 2019. Futures markets will be closed at 1 p.m ET. The Friday after Thanksgiving, all markets and banks will close early. Due to the modified schedule, external transfers may be delayed."



I cannot give you any kind of rule, but "close early" is standard English for what is meant here and "close earlier/later" is not, because that phrase is used to express something else.
The ways of Grammar are mysterious: Flowers grow well (or poorly), even though they smell good (or bad).

"... all markets and banks will close earlier" would lead me to ask "earlier than what?" So, I suppose I would initially understand the "earlier" version of the sentence to mean: "... all markets and banks will close earlier than 1 p.m." Then I would probably realize that this makes no sense, because we've gone back to the topic of all markets and banks and you can't close earlier than never opening. At this point, I would probably lose interest in the precise meaning of the statement and forget about it; if not, I would presumably mentally correct "earlier" to read "early" or "earlier than usual" and then the statement would make sense again.

PS: Sorry, I just saw that I used a lot of words to repeat precisely what Maxi Schwarz had already expressed very concisely.


[Edited at 2019-12-03 10:45 GMT]


Arabic & More
 


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early or earlier?






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