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Earlier (antes)

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fglorca
November 07, 2015, 06:30 AM
I called you earlier. (e.g. 8:00 this morning)
• Te llamé antes.

Is there another expression we could use here instead of antes?
I know más temprano is not correct here.

Many thanks in advance.

aleCcowaN
November 07, 2015, 07:37 AM
Not clear the context you have in mind. At least give one example for each context you want to have explained.

AngelicaDeAlquezar
November 07, 2015, 10:58 AM
@fglorca: You are right; "más temprano" doesn't work, since we'd need some usual hour to compare to, and that's not what your sentence is about.
Your sentence is fine, but it sounds a little fragmentary (¿antes de qué?). I might rather say "Ya te había llamado (antes)", where the conjugation makes clear that I had already made a previous call.

Also:
- Te llamé (temprano) en/por la mañana.
- Te llamé hace rato.

fglorca
November 07, 2015, 12:35 PM
How about:
Te llamé antes, pero no estabas en casa.
We could replace antes with hace un rato, couldn't we?

aleCcowaN
November 07, 2015, 02:13 PM
antes requires an event

AngelicaDeAlquezar
November 07, 2015, 03:59 PM
It's better with "hace (un) rato"; that is why I changed the verb in your previous one for "ya te había llamado", so there is a reference for using "antes". :)