a year earlier vs year ago

Both phrases are correct, but they are used in different contexts. 'A year earlier' is used to refer to a specific point in time in the past, while 'a year ago' is used to indicate a general time frame in the past.

Last updated: April 01, 2024 • 196 views

This phrase is correct and commonly used in English to refer to a specific point in time in the past.

"a year earlier"

Use 'a year earlier' when you want to specify a particular time in the past that is one year before another specified time.

Examples:

He joined the company a year earlier than I did.
The event took place a year earlier than expected.

Show examples from the web [+]

Contracts of sale of real estate by 23, 2% higher than a year earlier.
Growth in January 1994 over a year earlier was 138 percent.
After all, he had expressed his approval of the idea barely a year earlier and was familiar with its details.
I was pleased with this result not only because of the dramatic improvement from my showing in the Minneapolis mayoral primary a year earlier but also because I had demonstrated that ridiculous campaign positions need not be a deterrent to attracting votes.
Starts by claiming that allegations surfaced in spring 2003, when they were known a year earlier (see van Buitenen papers)? 3.
But now the advocates of the Anarchists denounce us for not having introduced the NEP a year earlier.
At the same time, Ankara embarked on a war against neighboring Syria, with whom a year earlier she had signed a trade liberalization agreement.
Bernini died at the age of eighty-two on 28 November 1680, and sculpted the statue a year earlier.
From the orbit it was later deduced that these were probably fragments of a comet which had passed near the planet about a year earlier.
from 47 percent a year earlier, Flurry said.
And a trial from a year earlier may give him the answer.
The police were so embarrassed by arresting the wrong man a year earlier, they railroaded my client.
Three days later, the 5+1 agreements, which had been negotiated a year earlier, were also made public[5].
This is at TED, actually, about a year earlier.
After arriving at the county jail downtown, I went through the same booking procedures as a year earlier.
The night Kim Tolbert was murdered, she was in Jasper Grove, near a farmhouse you had foreclosed on a year earlier.
We were arrested together, and when I came out of prison, I heard she'd been exiled a year earlier.
No, but I was in the hospital about a year earlier after a car accident, but I bounced back from that until this.
Even though Opera claims about 210 million Opera Mini users worldwide, Net Applications pegged the browser's share of mobile at 12% for April, just half what it was a year earlier.
The Court of Auditors adopted its decision in May 1996 and almost a year earlier we had decided to suspend the programmes and cancel all the current contracts with the companies involved.

Alternatives:

one year before
a year before
a year prior
a year previously
a year back

This phrase is correct and commonly used in English to indicate a general time frame in the past.

"year ago"

Use 'year ago' when referring to a time that is one year before the present moment, without specifying a particular point in time.

Examples:

I visited Paris a year ago.
She moved to a new city a year ago.

Show examples from the web [+]

Ensign transferred over a year ago.
Investigation started almost a year ago.
They adopted me, like, a year ago.
Dressing rooms were completely renovated a year ago.
Mr Jezequiel died a year ago.
I filed chapter 11 a year ago.
Pretty successful until a year ago.
But Charlie stopped chemotherapy almost a year ago.
India's unique identification program started just a year ago.
My father remarried a year ago.
Professor Pappas died a year ago.
It's an industrial laundry the DEA seized a year ago.
It was more than a year ago.
I wrote a paper about him a year ago.
We promised to read the letters a year ago.
He moved to Chicago over a year ago.
Sam got some a year ago, but nobody ever ordered it... so it went bad.
A little more than a year ago, the Captain and I met again.
Arrested one year ago in San Miguel, El Salvador.
Until a year ago, he was living in Texas.

Alternatives:

one year ago
a year in the past
a year back
a year before
a year prior

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a year earlier vs year ago

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