On Lang-8, for 'early birthday present' I used
早い誕生日プレゼント
but this was corrected to
早めの誕生日プレゼント
What's the difference between 早い and 早め?
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Related: “slightly/somewhat” の 「～目」: Usage and limitations – istrasci Aug 5 '15 at 15:09
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Wish I had a good explanation, but if I heard 「はやい誕生日プレゼント」 the only meaning it could have is a birthday present that moves quickly (like, a train or something). – Darius Jahandarie Aug 6 '15 at 0:39
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早い is "early" in a time sense, and as an adjective. That is to say:
早く起きる Wake up early
早い時間 Early hours (there's probably a better translation than this somewhere)
早め is "earlier" in the sense of an adverb to describe something else (technically 早く is an adverb, but it's not used the same way). Compare it to the verb 早める, meaning "to advance" (in time), or make earlier.
早めに支払いをする Pay off early
早めの昼ごはん Early lunch
早めにプレゼントをあげる Give a present early
This last one changed to 早めのプレゼント, which gives us the sentence you gave at the start.
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I'd never considered the temporal vs. ahead-of-time split that 'early' rolls into one. Thanks! – Bernard Aug 5 '15 at 12:20
