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Is correct and natural to say bring forward by two days meaning to make something happen two days earlier than was planned? Is natural to use the peposition by there. For example:

Let's bring the meeting forward by two days. I don't want to hold it on December 18. December 20 would work better.

3 Answers 3

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Yes this is a very natural phrase to use. It means make it happen earlier like you mentioned. You can use "push it back" in the same way to move it to a later date.

However, there is a mistake in you example sentence.

" I don't want to hold it on December 18. December 20 would work better."

This is making it happen 2 days later not 2 days earlier. So this is not bringing it forward.

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  • Thank you for the answer. What about the use of the preposition "by" there? "Bring forward by"? Dec 2, 2020 at 8:58
  • "by" is the correct preposition here. From Google: by: "indicating the amount or size of a margin" Dec 2, 2020 at 10:05
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It's correct that "bring forward" means set it two days earlier, or closer to the present, but your example sentence says the opposite:

I don't want to hold it on December 18. December 20 would work better.

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It is a perfectly natural way to say it. Another alternative would be to use the word advance.

Let's advance the board meeting by two days. December 18 isn't working for me.

Some notes (they are already said by others, but I would repeat it nonetheless):
Your sentence is indicating pushing back the event, instead it forwarding it to an earlier date. If you intend to achieve the meeting to be held on December 20 then,

Let's push the meeting back by two days. I don't want to hold it on December 18. December 20 would work better.

On a side note: If you are mentioning the exact number of days by which the event is shifted, there is absolutely no need to include two sentences including the two dates. It is fairly redundant. If you push forward the meeting by two days, it is obvious that it will be on 16th instead of 18th now.


The following two highlighted words are mainly Indian English, but you can consider using it (if you wish).

Let's prepone the meeting by two days. I don't want to hold it on December 18.

Let's postpone the meeting by two days. I don't want to hold it on December 18.

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  • "Postpone" is universal English, but you're right about "prepone", which I haven't heard in use in the US. Dec 2, 2020 at 16:56

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