Wondering about this vocab entry. I have many times heard this vocab word used to mean “hurry up” or “hurry,” but it’s seen as incorrect by WaniKani.
Perhaps the Japanese people I hear use this as a command are just using bad grammer, but it seems pretty common to me.
Thanks
Why do you think that it’s seen as incorrect? Because it does not appear in the list of meanings?
If somebody says 「早く」that’s an abbreviation of something like 「早くして下さい」or 「早く行って下さい」- “Please do it quickly” / “Please go quickly”. It’s super-normal to leave out lots of stuff in spoken casual Japanese. So in the context of a dialogue the one-word sentence can mean “hurry up”, but the word in and of itself it does not mean that.
As @NicoleIsEnough said, it’s normal to leave things out in spoken Japanese. I guess you could call it a case of an ‘implied verb’, which is quite common in Japanese. Another example is a phrase you often hear in fantasy anime: 「ご武運（ぶうん）を」The implied verb is いのる, ‘to pray’, and the phrase literally means ‘I will pray [that you have] luck in battle’. There are plenty of other instances in which a verb is dropped after を. I wanted to come up with a simpler example, actually, but all I can think of is Konosuba’s full title (この素晴らしい世界に祝福を！), which is common enough if you like anime, but isn’t exactly simple… Either way, you get the idea. That common translation of 早くis based on meaning in context, not the word’s actual meaning.
Aye, a similar one is 静かに！ being used for “be quiet!”.
It’s short for 静かにしてください.
It’s not much different from someone rushing someone along by going “Quickly!” It’s not literally “Hurry” even though “Hurry” could be used instead.
Well, more because if I use that as an answer, it tells me I’m wrong.
I instinctively think of this as meaning “hurry up” because I’ve experienced that command before (many times). I thought that would be considered a correct answer.
Unless something is blacklisted, WK isn’t taking a stance on if it’s right or wrong, since you could still add it as a synonym. If you look at the example sentences, this is an adverb and can be used in sentences without being isolated like you’re referring to.
perhaps, as 早く is an adverb, WK doesn’t want you to translate it as a verb? i don’t know. i reckon if used as an exhortation you could certainly translate it to “hurry!”, but if you learned that as the meaning of 早く you’d risk not learning that it is an adverb?
So, if I add a synonym, it becomes an accepted definition for the quizzes?
Yes. I guess some of us just assume everyone already knows that.
Since you’ve already internalised this word as a command, why not take this opportunity to learn the more general meaning of ‘early’? That way you learn something new.
By the way, I think that the ‘hurry’ meaning belongs more to this version of the word: 速く. This one means ‘fast’, while the other one means ‘early’.
I’m not so sure about that. In my experience, I’ve never heard 速い used that way
Typically, I would hear はやい as an interjection meaning “that was fast!” OR “you’re early!” I would hear 早く as an imperative meaning “hurry up!”
Maybe I’m wrong here, but I don’t think there is an equivalent imperative use of 速い.
Yeah, I didn’t realize that or I forgot about it. Thanks for pointing it out.
See that’s the thing, neither 早く nor 速く are imperatives. They’re adverbs for an imperative verb which happens to be omitted.
I personally agree with WK on “hurry up” not being the meaning of either. It can be used in such a way, in much the same way as 私も can be used as “I agree” - but that’s not what 私も means, it’s just that certain contexts can lead to it being interpreted in that way.
From what I can see on Jisho, 早い can also mean quick, hasty, etc. and 速い is an alternate form of the same word, apparently. Though through learning vocab I’ve learned the same distinction as you have - though I can see the “hurry up” implication working with the meaning of “early” - as in “get this done ASAP” rather than “do this quickly”
Saida was talking about the form 速く, which is just one form of 速い. 早く itself is the same word just in adverb form (obviously with a different nuance expressed by the kanji). So even though in one entry you have a word that isn’t conjugated and in another, you have a word that is conjugated, it doesn’t mean they aren’t still the same word.
And I don’t typically hear people using 早く as a command and instead (people where I live) use 急いで. 
Just pointing out that common use varies, and as others said it is a good idea to learn the root meaning of the word (早い being an adjective that means “early”) as well as supplement it with common uses you encounter.
That’s what was confusing to me. The link that Saida gave me was to 速い not 速く。That’s why I wrote 速い.
If 速 can also be used as 速く, then that makes perfect sense I completely understand the point now. I didn’t know any of that as I haven’t got that far in the levels yet.
Thanks everybody
Just a heads-up: WaniKani won’t teach you this, as it’s grammar rather than kanji/vocab (even for vocab I’d recommend a different source, since WK’s vocab is mostly aimed at helping the kanji stick rather than usefulness).
In short, はやく is the adverbial form of the adjective はやい.
Right, I got that.
What confused me was that you wrote はやく, but you linked me to はやい, so it looked like you were trying to say that はやい was also used as an adverbial form.
Ah, no, just I wanted to point out the other はやい、 but WK only has 早く, not 速く as vocab.