What's the difference between earlier and sooner in these three sentences? Which one is a better fit and why? I feel so ashamed of still not being able to grasp the difference between soon and early in contexts like the ones below that I am playing with the idea of returning my Cambridge C2 certificate because I think this is something I ought to know and yet I don't. I have been trying to figure out the difference but all in vain. The information I found online has done me a lot of disservice instead of helping me because the information I have come across online is only indirectly related to the information I am looking for, thereby making me even more confused. I'd really appreciate it if someone came along and shed some light on the difference between earlier and sooner in these contexts because I am already six months into looking for an answer and I am genuinely exhausted. Sorry for rambling. Without further ado, here are the sentences Person A gets a promotion in March and person B gets a promotion in May. Did Person A get a promotion 2 months earlier or sooner than Person B? Their train left three minutes sooner or earlier than mine. Newspaper A published the article a day sooner or earlier than Newspaper B. What is the difference between earlier and sooner?