too early
241
1.0
- adverb
- /tu ˈɜrli/
:
demasiado pronto
- It's too early in the morning to have breakfast; the sun hasn't even risen yet.
- too early to tell
- still too early
- too early to say
Or if you a buyer, you buy too early when prices are still falling.
- Or if you a buyer, you buy too early when prices are still falling.
- I mean it's it's too early to make giant judgments.
- You may be thinking, Zoe, it's way too early for Christmas.
- And so, so it's never too late or too early to start building your platform.
- You say that it's much too early to make that decision.
- Yeah, but I think way too early for that now, isn't it?
- It's now spring because if they were to sprout too early, they would die.
- And you went through that initiation way too early.
- The point is, yeah, it was too early for meatloaf.
- Whoa, wait, did you end it too early?
- the Fed cannot afford to save the day too early.
- And then they still bought out the box too early.
Examples
-
It's too early in the morning for that.
-
You say that it's much too early to make that decision.
-
So I think it's it's just too early to say.
-
Is it ever really too early or too late to learn?
-
It's too early to tell.
-
Maybe we were supposed to meet on British time and we're five hours too early.
-
At this point, it is too early to tell what impact, if any, there will be.
Academic text (1997) -
I hope the answer will not take too long, but it is too early now to celebrate.
Academic text (1998) -
By far the greatest danger of AI is that people conclude too early that they understand it.
-
But it is way too early to talk about large scale repatriation.
Synonyms
∞
1.0
Before the usual or expected time
120
4.5
Happening before the usual time or before it is ready
76
2.3
Earlier than planned or expected
53
4.1
Happening before the right time
34
5.3
Happening at a bad time, often earlier than expected
Too new for people now to accept
Antonyms
How Early
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'at a time before the expected or appropriate time' is directly compositional: 'too' (excessively) modifies 'early' (before the usual time), yielding 'excessively early' or 'earlier than appropriate'. This straightforward modifier + adjective/adverb pattern is common cross-linguistically (e.g., Spanish 'demasiado pronto', French 'trop tôt') and would be predictable to a B1 learner who knows both words.
Etymology
Too early gives a simple picture: you arrive before an event has started — you are too soon and it is early, so the doors are still closed. So, too early means 'at a time before the expected or right time'.