frühen

In a sentence

• Die frühen Morgenstunden fühlten sich kühl an.

  The early morning hours felt cool.

  Here, 'frühen' is used as an adjective describing 'Morgenstunden' (morning hours), specifying they are early.

• In den frühen 1960er Jahren gab es viele kulturelle Veränderungen.

  In the early 1960s, there were many cultural changes.

  The word 'frühen' acts again as an adjective, this time describing the decade '1960er Jahren' to specify the time as early in the decade.

• Dank meiner früheren Ankunft konnte ich den besten Platz sichern.

  Thanks to my earlier arrival, I could secure the best spot.

  Here, 'früheren' is an inflected form of the comparative adjective 'früh', describing 'Ankunft' (arrival) as something which occurred earlier than another reference point.