Till or before?

Status
Not open for further replies.

RoseSpring

Member
Joined
Mar 13, 2009
Member Type
Academic
Native Language
Arabic
Home Country
Egypt
Current Location
Egypt
But you have only six week before/till the Christmas, so are you intending to work day and night to finish it?


Is this sentence correct?

Do we say till or before? :up:
 

marvan

Junior Member
Joined
Apr 9, 2008
Member Type
Student or Learner
Native Language
Slovak
Home Country
Slovak Republic
Current Location
Slovak Republic
Hello there,

I am not a teacher but according to me the correct answer is "TILL" - in the sense: till (untill) the Christmas comes.
 

emsr2d2

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Jul 28, 2009
Member Type
English Teacher
Native Language
British English
Home Country
UK
Current Location
UK
But you have only six weeks until (or til) [STRIKE]the[/STRIKE] Christmas, so are you intending to work day and night to finish it?


Is this sentence correct?

Do we say till or before? :up:

Until is correct (this is abbreviated to "til" in British English, not "till". Other corrections are marked in red above.
 

marvan

Junior Member
Joined
Apr 9, 2008
Member Type
Student or Learner
Native Language
Slovak
Home Country
Slovak Republic
Current Location
Slovak Republic
Hello emsr2d2,

are you sure about the spelling of "til"? I counsulted serveral dictionaries (Cambridge etc.) and all of them show the spelling as "TILL" (double l).
Thank you!
 

Barb_D

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Mar 12, 2007
Member Type
Other
Native Language
American English
Home Country
United States
Current Location
United States
You may find this reference useful: till - definition of till by the Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus and Encyclopedia.

Usage Note: Till and until are generally interchangeable in both writing and speech, though as the first word in a sentence until is usually preferred: Until you get that paper written, don't even think about going to the movies. · Till is actually the older word, with until having been formed by the addition to it of the prefix un-, meaning "up to." In the 18th century the spelling 'till became fashionable, as if till were a shortened form of until. Although 'till is now nonstandard, 'til is sometimes used in this way and is considered acceptable, though it is etymologically incorrect.
 

marvan

Junior Member
Joined
Apr 9, 2008
Member Type
Student or Learner
Native Language
Slovak
Home Country
Slovak Republic
Current Location
Slovak Republic
:) THANX A LOT
 

emsr2d2

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Jul 28, 2009
Member Type
English Teacher
Native Language
British English
Home Country
UK
Current Location
UK
You may find this reference useful: till - definition of till by the Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus and Encyclopedia.

Usage Note: Till and until are generally interchangeable in both writing and speech, though as the first word in a sentence until is usually preferred: Until you get that paper written, don't even think about going to the movies. · Till is actually the older word, with until having been formed by the addition to it of the prefix un-, meaning "up to." In the 18th century the spelling 'till became fashionable, as if till were a shortened form of until. Although 'till is now nonstandard, 'til is sometimes used in this way and is considered acceptable, though it is etymologically incorrect.

You learn something new every day! Thanks, Barb. I always used to write 'til, but noticed in recent years that the use of the apostrophe at the start of many words had begun to disappear ('phone, for example). I'll be using "till" from now on.
 

Barb_D

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Mar 12, 2007
Member Type
Other
Native Language
American English
Home Country
United States
Current Location
United States
I don't know what we did before we had the Internet to answer these questions for us. I'm a reformed 'til user myself.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top