The structure 早也不A晚也不A
The structure usually indicates that some action took place at the wrong time. In this structure, we should state the same verb in both places for “A”. We do not state both verbs when the construction is translated into English, because in English the verb is repeated again in another part of the sentence after the structure.
Scheme
早也不
verb
晚也不
verb
Pay attention
In some situations we can omit the adverb 也.
Examples
这雨早也不下,晚也不下,我刚刚准备出门的时候就突然下了起来
It didn’t rain before or after I left the house. Rather it only rained right as I was leaving the house
zhè yǔ zǎo yě bú xià, wǎn yě bú xià, wǒ gānggāng zhǔnbèi chūmén de shíhou jiù tūrán xià le qǐlái
早也不走,晚也不走,我们需要他帮忙的时候她却走了
She left us right when we needed her to help
zǎo yě bù zǒu, wǎn yě bù zǒu, wǒmen xūyào tā bāngmáng de shíhou tā què zǒu le
没想到他早不出现,晚不出现,我一结婚了他就出现了
He showed up right after I got married
méi xiǎngdào tā zǎo bù chūxiàn, wǎn bù chūxiàn, wǒ yī jiéhūn le tā jiù chūxiàn le
Pay attention
The adverb has the opposite meaning. You can learn more about it here ↓
Open in app