Howdy, fellas! How’s your Monday going? I hope it’s going awesome :)

Well, today, I’d like to talk about a bit of grammar, which is about the use of ‘by’ and ‘until’ in a sentence. Here we go! #GrammarTrivia

BY (+ a time) means ‘not later than’. Study the following examples. #GrammarTrivia

“I posted the letter today, so they should receive it BY Monday.” (= NOT LATER than Monday). #GrammarTrivia

“We’d better hurry. We have to be at home BY 5 o’clock.” (= AT or BEFORE 5 o’clock). #GrammarTrivia

“Where’s Sue? She should be here BY now.” (= so she should have arrived already) #GrammarTrivia

You cannot use UNTIL with the following meaning: #GrammarTrivia

“Tell me BY Friday whether or not you can come to the party.” (NOT ‘Tell me until Friday’) #GrammarTrivia

We use UNTIL (or TILL) to say ‘how long’ a situation continues. Study the following examples. #GrammarTrivia

“Shall we go now?” “No, let’s wait UNTIL (or TILL) it stops raining.” #GrammarTrivia

“I couldn’t get up this morning. I stayed in bed UNTIL half past ten.” #GrammarTrivia

Please compare the following example to see the difference between the use of BY and UNTIL. #GrammarTrivia

“I’ll be working UNTIL 11:30.” and “I’ll have finished my work BY 11:30. ” #GrammarTrivia

You can clearly see the difference, can’t you? :) #GrammarTrivia

Therefore, that’s how we use ‘BY and UNTIL’ in a sentence. I hope this discussion helps you. #GrammarTrivia

All in all, remember to visit http://englishtips4u.com and http://facebook.com/englishtips4u, fellas! See you! :)

Source: English Grammar in Use (Raymond Murphy, Cambridge University Press).

Compiled by @aditriasmara at @EnglishTips4U on January 12, 2014.