What's the difference in meaning between these two sentences?

AnonymousWe are late.

We are now late.

AnonymousWe are already late.

We have been late for some time and we are now still late.
We are late even before we expected to be late.

CJ

Hi, CJ,

Do you mean 'we are already late' can mean either 'We have been late for some time and we are now still late.' or 'We are late even before we expected to be late.'? Or it means the two things above at the same time?

Could you give an example of 'We are already late.'?

Thanks a lot.

AnonymousDo you mean 'we are already late' can mean either 'We have been late for some time and we are now still late.' or 'We are late even before we expected to be late.'? Or it means the two things above at the same time?

Either one or both together. They are vaguely equivalent.

For examples see

Hi,CJ,
Could you please explain what the sentence means below?
"We are late even before we expected to be late."

Thanks a lot.

AnonymousWe are late even before we expected to be late.

I know it doesn't make much sense, but I'm referring to a situation like the following.

Suppose you and a friend have to be at a party at 8 pm.
That means you have to be in the car by 7:45 because it takes 15 minutes to drive to your destination.
If you don't get into the car until 7:50

CalifJim["We are already late" because we started 5 minutes late. If we stop for beer we'll be even later.Maybe it's better to say that "We are already late" means we already know that we are going to be late.]

Hi CJ,

Can I use 'We are running late' instead of 'We are already late' in your example above to mean the same thing?

Thank you for y

AnonymousCan I use 'We are running late' instead of 'We are already late' in your example above to mean the same thing?

Yes.

CJ