early or earlier? Thread poster: jyuan_us
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jyuan_us 
United States
Local time: 19:59
Member (2005)
English to Chinese
+ ...
"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... See more "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? ▲ Collapse
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"Early" in that context means "earlier than usual".
| | | | | | jyuan_us
United States
Local time: 19:59
Member (2005)
English to Chinese
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
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]
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Thomas Pfann
United Kingdom
Local time: 00:59
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).
| | | | jyuan_us
United States
Local time: 19:59
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
Spain
Local time: 01:59
Spanish to English
+ ...
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")...
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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.
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| 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.
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"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?".
| | | | Kay Denney
France
Local time: 01:59
French to English
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]
| | | | | 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]
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