THE NON-NATIVE SPEAKER'S TRAP:
Until/Till or By?  
 © 2001-2002 by Orchid Land Publications

C.-J. N. Bailey

[updated 20020510]

          Speakers of German, Greek, etc. frequently say meaningless things like "He will begin it until ten o'clock."    The problem lies in the fact that many languages do not make the "until"/"by" distinction that we have in English.  It is one of the more complex distinctions our language has, as described in my Essays on time-based linguistic analysis (Oxford University Press [1996], pp. 187-101).  Further examples are given in Variation in the data:  Can linguistics ever become a science?  (Orchid Land Publications [1992], pp. 000.)  

     Just as situation is the touchstone of foreigness in pronunciation, by is the touchstone of functional words in English.  It is amusing to hear pompous professors who claim to know all about English and who pontificate on that mythical "standard" English that they are never loath to proclaim . . . as they slip into something like "I'll find it out till five o'clock."  They have no idea why this is not acceptable--let alone why native "I'll save it till five o'clock" and "I won't find it out till five o'clock" are acceptable.  We don't say, "I'll feed the dog till five o'clock."

     The principle of reversals in marked contexts (see Chh. 5 and 6 of the above-mentioned volume) makes it correct to say "I won't feed the dog till five o'clock."  We can also say, "I won't have fed the dog before five o'clock," as well as, of course, "I'll keep reading till five o'clock" and "I'll lock the door till five o'clock" if the sense is "I'll keep the door locked till five o'clock."  Cf. "I'll put it away/hide it till five o'clock."  "I'll believe it till then" and "I'll believe it by then" have different senses, both acceptable in good English.  (Note that believe  is a stative verb.)  I refer the reader to the analysis in the book cited above.

      To understand the difference between:

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the reader is referred to Ch. 6 of the above-mentioned book where it deals with the two passivizers of English.