Learn English Prepositions: BY, UNTIL, TILL, ’TIL…

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What do you mean you have until - what the hell?

I have until 5pm until he leaves.

Who the hell does this worm think he is?

5pm - oh, shoot.

Yeah, it's close.

James from engVid.

Yeah, Mr. E. It says, "I have until 5pm".

That means that's the deadline.

Now, he didn't say the word "by", and there was a reason for that, and that's what today's

lesson is about.

"By" and "until".

These are both prepositions of time, so that makes them similar, but they are very, very

different in how we apply them and what they mean.

Today, I'm going to help you with this because many students have difficulty with it, and

we're going to do a little bit of a spelling check and see how well you know some of these

Let's go to the board.

As I said, this is called a Venn diagram, by the way, and what that means is there are

two different objects, but there's a place in which they intersect - that means they

come together - where they have something similar, and then there are parts that are

very different.

So, when you use a Venn diagram, it's very useful because it helps you figure out what's

the same and what's not the same.

So, what's the same?

They are both prepositions of time, "until" and "by".

There are other meanings for, you know, "by" which we'll touch on, but, you know, this

is what we want to know for this particular subject.

So, let's start with "until".

"Until" means you have a period of time to do something, and then you have to stop.

That means you start now, and this period of time continues from this moment on, but

Now, "until" can also be seen in two other forms.

Sometimes you'll see "til" like this, T-I-L-L.

This is the informal version of "until".

It is a word by itself, so don't get confused and think, "Oh, but they look very different."

No, this is a word, "til", and it means the same as "until".

Two separate words.

The next one we have is "uptil", and you'll go, "Well, what's that?

This is the short version of "until".

This is the short...

Until I get this right.

Let me start again.

This is the short version of "until".

You can see it's T-I-L, T-I-L, and this apostrophe tells us that the beginning part is missing,

so this means "uptil".

Now this is talking...

Remember I said that you continue until a period you stop?

This is talking about just the final time.

You have "uptil 5 o'clock", that's the final time.

When you say "until", we're talking about now, until this time, the continuation.

So that's what "until" means.

So we're looking at a period of time that continues, then you must stop.

Why is this different from "by"?

Well, "by" isn't talking about a continuation.

It's just saying, period, and then there's a future point, sometime in the future, that's

when it's going to end.

So, it will happen before a certain time or at a certain time in the future.

So, it's going to happen at a certain time, like before the certain time or at a certain

So that's the end point.

So you're here, and it's not continuing.

We're not talking about continuing, we're just going, "It ends here."

This one continues, this one's just like, jump to the future.

A certain time or just before that time.

So it could end actually here, but this is the end point.

They both have stops, but we get there differently.

Now, you'll see this one here, and I said, "by the time".

This means the same as "by", the only difference is we use this before a verb.

Like, "By the time I get home", "get" is the verb.

"By the time you finish dinner", "finish" is the verb.

So we will use "by the time" before a verb.

Otherwise, it means the same.

Now, it would - I mean, I gave you an example, I talked, but why don't I give you some examples?

Because by looking at the examples side by side, you can see how they have a similar

meaning, right?

They are prepositions of time, but how we arrive and the actual meaning is a bit different.

And there's going to be one that's a little bit tricky that we're going to get to when

I do the quiz later on.

So here you can see that I use all three versions of "till", "until", "uptill", and "till",

just so you can see how they work, and how they work the exact same.

It's just spelling, okay?

And this one does have a little bit of a different meaning, but you'll see it here.

So, first one I want to do is, you have until May 13th to bring the book back.

And what I wanted to say was bring the book back to the library, but I didn't have enough

So keep in your mind, bring the book back to the library, okay?

Now, how is it different when we say "by"?

When we say "by", we say this, you must bring the book to the library by May 13th.

This is the final point in the future, okay?

So in the future, you want to go here, final point.

Here you have "until", so we're starting today, whatever day this is, but then you have from

today until May 13th.

On this one, we're saying, you got the book?

Bring it back by this time.

We don't care how much time is here, end point.

All right, next.

I will be up till 10pm today, okay?

I will be up till 10pm today.

This is the final time, right?

So we're not - it's much more similar in this case to "by" than the rest of the "untils".

That's the final time we're talking about.

So there is that continuation.

There is that continuation where what we're looking at is it may be 2 o'clock now, 3 o'clock,

but up till 10pm, so it's continuing, okay?

Final time is 10pm.

Over here, do you remember I said some future point, right, that something's going to happen?

You look at the verb - we got "will", "will", these are future tenses, right?

We got them built right in.

I will be in bed by 10pm today.

It's a future tense.

All right, there you go, all right?

All right, now let's go down this one.

I work till 5 o'clock tomorrow.

That means I will be working and continue until 5pm.

Here it says I will be finished work by, right?

That future point in time, we got that "will", 5 o'clock tomorrow.

You will see the similarity, how they're similar and the differences.

This is only concerned mostly, I should say, with that future time, not the continuation,

while this one talks about that continuation, starting and continuing into the future.

We know their prepositions on time, both of them.

We know how they work.

I've given you examples how you would write similar statements and how they have to change

because of how these work.

But you know something?

I'm not sure if you got it.

So what I want you to do is follow me, we'll do a quiz, we'll see how well you learn this.

Hey, we're back.

Let's go to the board and do our quiz, and we're going to do our bonus, and I'm going

to give you homework because that's how the class rolls, right?

So first question I want to ask you is this.

I have to finish my website something due first.

Would it be by or till?

What do you think?

Do you remember what we said about by?

That's some future period in time, right?

So by June 1st, that's a future period in time.

It doesn't matter - we're not talking about continuing, you might not do any work until

like May 30th or something, I don't know, or May 25th, but then you've got to get it

done by June 1st.

So let's look at the second sentence.

"I will be studying English dinner time."

I'm going to give you a little bit of a hint here.

Do you remember we talked about what?

"ing" is continuation, right?

Present continuous.

Something is continuing.

So we're going to say "until".

If we look for an "ing", we know it's probably going to be "until", yeah?

How about number three?

I will wait something 6pm, then I'm leaving."

What do you think that will be?

Well, remember we said "will" is future time?

So if we're talking about future time, I'm going to bet it's "up till", and I want you

to note the spelling, because we talked about that before, remember?

"Up", this is the shortened version of "until", so "up till" is the final time.

This is the final time, 6pm, "then I'm leaving".

So what about number four?

"We have to leave something a.m. if we want to catch the train."

We have to leave by, because the time has started, maybe it's 10pm at night we're talking,

but from this time we have until - sorry, by this time - by 8am if we want to leave.

So we have to leave by 8am, right?

It's not a continuation, this is the forward time in the future, so the future time is

8am.

So whenever we are here, 8am is in the future.

And now, number five, "I will be at the hospital something 5pm."

Now, this is a very, very special one, okay?

Very special, you're going to figure it out in two seconds, pay attention, alright?

"I will be at the hospital", which one of you guys said "by"?

You're correct.

Which one of you guys said "until"?

You're correct.

You've got to be careful here, because look at this sentence, I know this is the future,

but do you remember how we said "by until", something continues and then it stops, and

something is in the future time?

This type of sentence could be either one, context-driven, so you have to actually know.

"I will be at the hospital by 5pm" means whatever time it is now, in the future I will arrive

So I'll be there by 5pm, not before that time, I'm sorry, I've got stuff to do, but at this

future time I'll get there.

But I could also, "I will be at the hospital until 5pm", that means I'm here now, but at

5pm I will leave the hospital.

So in a situation like this you've got to be very careful, because we are both talking

about the future, but if the person's going to leave, then we're going to have to use

"until", but if they're going to arrive, we're going to use "by".

I know, you didn't see that coming, did you?

You were like "Oh, I know, I know", and I'm like "Hey, I did explain things for a reason

and they both kind of have a future kind of idea on them", right?

Up until some time in the future, then it stops, or at a future point.

So if you're looking at something like "I will be at", if someone says "I will be at

work", it could be "by" or "until", depending on the context, so be careful of the context

and you'll know for sure.

So, I'm glad, that was good, because some of you, I know some of you guys were like

"100%" and you were like "It's by and until", because I was listening to what you said.

But even if you got this or this right, you're still correct, it's just understand that it

could be different depending on the context, so you have to know is the person arriving

or is the person leaving, and then you'll know the answer, right?

Now, we have a couple more things, because you know I always give you a bonus, and the

first thing I want to talk is "up until now".

That means something has been going very, very well up until now, or something could

be going very, very bad up until now, because in this moment, something has changed, right?

You've been very good to me up until now, that means you were good, then you stopped.

It's been bad weather up until now, so it was bad weather, now it's nice and sunny.

Till now, basically same, right, up to this moment, and up to this point in time.

They all basically say the same thing, right?

These three are just another way of saying "until", okay?

So you have five, oops, six ways of saying it.

Now, you're going to look here, and it looks like I made a mistake, like what is this?

Well, sometimes even native speakers make a mistake with using "by", "by", or "by".

Do they know how to say it properly?

Of course they do, but I bet you if you want to have fun and do a little test, don't let

them see this part, and just say, "When you say 'by', what kind of grammar is that?"

Most of them won't say preposition, or "by" with an "e" is an exclamation, or "by" with

They'll probably say "by" with a verb, because they'll know that one, but it's good to keep

in mind, because if native speakers can make that mistake, you can make that mistake.

So, "by" this way is preposition, in this particular lesson, we used it as a preposition

"By" here is an exclamation, like "bye", short for "goodbye", and then "buy", "buy cheese,

milk, bread", whatever, right, as a verb.

Now, here is the homework for this particular lesson that I want you to do.

I have three different questions, and my question to you for one million points, and I want

you to answer these questions either on Facebook, or NVID, or YouTube.

Start with the correct answer, and you can get a million points for everybody who gives

a thumbs up on your particular answer, and in our community, a lot of people are doing

It's kind of nice to see when you see 15 or 20 people give someone a thumbs up.

It gives them enthusiasm to keep studying, and sometimes they really write stuff that

you can use in your own studying, so you've got some great people there.

So, the first one I want to ask you is this.

Please pay this bill something May 1st.

Is that "by" or "until"?

I'd love to tell you, but this is your homework; you've got to do it.

Put the answers below.

You have something Friday to hand in your essay.

Some of you guys are studying English, so you hear this a lot, okay?

Which one is it?

"By" or "until"?

And then, this one's tricky, so pay attention; I made an effort to make sure you're aware

She'll be at the office something 12pm.

Is that "by" or "until"?

Anyway, what I want to do is I want to give you the quote for the day.

It's right here, okay?

This is from Nelson Mandela.

He was actually the president of South Africa, all right?

Freedom fighter at one time.

He said, "It is all - it always seems impossible until it's done."

Hope you enjoyed the lesson; I hope you enjoyed the quote.

What I'd like you to do is make sure you do "lipe", "lipe", "lipe", "lipe", "like", and

"subscribe", or better yet, please go to www.engvid.com, where there's going to be a quiz, right?

www.engvid.com.

There'll be a quiz, and there's, like, another thousand videos for you to watch and learn

I look forward to seeing you there.

And as always, thank you for supporting us by watching.

Don't forget to like and subscribe.