student asking question

Can I just use "early" instead of "early on"?

teacher

Native speaker’s answer

Rebecca

In this context, it would be better to use early on. This is because it references to time and means early stages of an event; the beginning of something If you would just use "early" it doesn't really give a reference of time. In this video, Bill Gates is saying that in the early stages of a virus, we need to be more prepared; we need to have people who are trained to deal with it, run simulations on what to do if another virus should happen, etc. Here are more example sentences with "early on" being used. Ex: The relationship between the two was great early on. Ex: Early on, the play was really boring.

Popular Q&As

04/18

Complete the expression with a quiz!