Difference between Antecedent and Precedent

Antecedent is used as an adjective or a noun and as a noun, it refers something that go ahead of another. As an adjective it means something that is earlier in time. In English grammar, it is used as a phrase, clause or a word that a pronoun refers to. An example can make it clear.

Example: John told me that he might be late for the class.
Here, ‘John’ is the antecedent and the pronoun ‘he’ refers to John. However, antecedent tells about the pronoun and it can be placed before or after the pronoun which is addressed. However, the pronoun gets its meaning from the antecedent.

Precedent is referred as an adjective or a noun. When it is used as a noun, it refers to an event that is happened before and can be represented as an example. As an adjective, it refers to preceding in order, importance and time. In law, precedent refers to a previous case that can be followed in the similar cases.

Example: After getting a similar case in the past, the lawyers have decided to use this precedent to support the arguments.

However, both the antecedent and precedent refer to the earlier events or actions, but the role of a precedent is broader as it is used as a guide or example before making any decision in the future. On the other hand, antecedent acts as a simple referent.