ankstyvas

Ankstyvas is a Lithuanian adjective meaning early, occurring before the usual or expected time. It describes times, events, or states that happen early in a day or early in a process. Common collocations include ankstyvas rytas (early morning), ankstyvas darbas (early work), and ankstyvas etapas in a project. It can also characterize early development, such as ankstyvas paauglystės laikotarpis (early adolescence). The term is neutral and widely used in speech, media, and literature.

Origin and form: Ankstyvas is formed from the adverb anksti meaning "early" with a standard Lithuanian adjectival suffix -vas. Like other Lithuanian adjectives, ankstyvas inflects for gender and number to agree with the noun it modifies.

Usage notes: In standard Lithuanian, ankstyvas is suitable for formal and informal contexts. The natural opposite is vėlyvas, meaning late. The related adverb is anksti. In sentences, the adjective agrees with the noun in gender and number, for example, masculine singular forms vs feminine or plural forms as required by the noun.

Examples in context: Ankstyvas rytas atnešė gaivų orą. Ankstyvas projekto pradžios etapas leido planuoti veiksmus atidžiai. These usages illustrate how ankstyvas marks temporal proximity to the starting point or to an expected time.