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.
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