提前(tí qián) - to bring forward, to do in advance, ahead of time in Mandarin

提前 (tí qián) moves something earlier. As a transitive verb it takes an event as its object: 提前会议 is to bring the meeting forward, and 提前到星期一 gives the new time. As an adverb it sits in front of another verb and means in advance or early: 提前买票, 提前准备, 提前到.

A time span can slot straight in after it. 提前十分钟到 is to arrive ten minutes early, 提前一周通知 is to give a week of notice. The opposite direction is 推迟 (tuī chí), to postpone.

The trap is word order. English lets in advance and early drift to the end of the clause, but Chinese adverbs go before the verb, so it is 请提前十分钟到 and never 请到提前十分钟. The other slip is using 早 instead. 早 describes a time as early in itself (今天我起得很早), while 提前 says something happened earlier than the plan said it would.