sooner
part of speech
adverb (soon, sooner, soonest); phrases (sooner or later, no sooner … than, the sooner the better)
meaning for a pupil
1) Sooner means earlier or in less time than something else. tree →
2) Sooner can mean «rather», as in «I'd sooner walk» (I would prefer to walk). tree →
3) "Sooner or later" can also mean eventually, at some time in the future. tree →
sense in the lessons
In everyday life «the sooner the better» means do it as early as possible, and «sooner or later» means it will happen some time. In maths problems on time, «sooner» means earlier: if a bus comes 5 minutes sooner, subtract 5 minutes from the time. In stories «No sooner had she sat down than the phone rang» shows two things happening almost at once.
examples
- Can we go home sooner? tree →
- Sooner or later you will have to tidy your room. tree →
- The sooner you start, the sooner you'll finish. tree →
- I'd sooner stay home than go out in the rain. tree →
- No sooner had we arrived than it started to rain. tree →
- The train came ten minutes sooner than we expected. tree →
- If you tell an adult sooner, they can help sooner. tree →
- Sooner or later the old woman died. tree →
note
«Sooner» is the comparative of «soon»; the superlative is «soonest». In maths, «5 minutes sooner» means 5 minutes earlier, so you subtract from the time. «I'd sooner» = I would rather. Do not say «more sooner».
In the corpora
- Non-urgent appointments can be weeks away because doctors have more patients than time; urgent problems are seen sooner.
- Squirrel monkeys travel in big troops and often follow capuchin monkeys to find fruit trees, and many eyes spot eagles sooner.
- Sooner or later he will be killed or ruined.
- When her old dog died, a girl in Texas thought it was her fault for not noticing sooner.
- Children who tell a trusted adult about a problem get help much sooner than those who keep it inside.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «sooner» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.