To me, ‘early’ simply means before the usual or scheduled/planned time, and there really is not any direct comparative aspect in the sentence. “Come a little bit early” basically means “Come a few minutes before the planned/expected time.”
Using the word ‘earlier’ suggests the word ‘than’ and a direct comparison to something specific. Unless you specifically state something such as “earlier than usual” or “earlier than planned” pr “earlier than you did today” or “earlier than last time” (etc.), or those ideas are clear from the broader context, I would not understand the sentence “Come a bit early” to be specifically comparative.
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If you use “a bit” in a direct question … use a comparative
If you use “a bit” in a “question tag” form then a comparative is not always required. (remember that a question tag is a statement related question… you offer the statement)
Otherwise just use early. Look at my past examples and Molly’s for the correct information.
“A bit warmer” is naturally possible, too. Whether you choose to say ‘warm’ or ‘warmer’ will depend largely on the broader context.
Hi HE
I haven’t forgotten the original question. I simply disagree with your opinion that a sentence such as “Can you come to the office a bit early?” is “wrong”.
To be honest, it almost sounds as though you might have been thinking of German rather than English usage. Then again, maybe you Brits just say this differently. However, I find that very hard to believe in this particular case.
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This is because in Russian (most people speak in Belarus) we don’t have such combination - a bit early - in such sentences. I may be wrong, but I simply can’t accept this because I compare it with my language.
No, Molly. I would probably use ‘a bit earlier’ or ‘on time’ there. As I said, it depends on the context.
Let’s say I have planned a party. The festivities are scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. Maybe I think I’ll need a bit of extra help with the final preparations just before the planned beginning of the party. I might say this to my best friend, for example:
“Could you come a bit early?”
In other words, I would be asking my friend to arrive a little bit before the scheduled time.
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For those of you who can’t quite believe that “a bit early” is and can be used, look at the results that a search of the British National Corpus provides:
