Learn English – What’s the difference between “It won’t be soon” and “It won’t be soon enough”

meaning

I have heard this expression "It won't be soon enough" quite often, in fact more often than simply "It won't be soon". I wonder if the word "enough" in the first one adds some additional meaning to the phrase. I haven't been able to detect any difference in meaning between the two.

Perhaps I am wrong, but according to my observations, "enough" seems to go along well with "be", while dropping "enough" seems to be more common for other verbs, for example, "It won't happen soon", "It won't arrive soon" and so on.

Best Answer

Soon means in a short period of time, while soon enough means in a sufficiently short period of time. If something won't happen soon, we expect it to take quite a while to happen. If something won't happen soon enough, we expect it will only happen when it is too late, for example past a deadline.