Difference between “By” and “Until” - Learn English Grammar

260,124 views ・ 2017-09-12

Learn English with EnglishClass101.com


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

00:00
Wanna speak real English from your first lesson? Sign up for your free lifetime
0
0
4259
00:04
account at EnglishClass101.com.
1
4260
2720
00:07
Hi, everybody! My name is Alisha. Welcome
2
7960
2360
00:10
back to our EnglishClass Channel. Today we're gonna be talking about the
3
10320
3569
00:13
difference between "by" and "until." So let's get started!
4
13889
4171
00:19
Okay, so first we're gonna talk about "by." "By" marks a deadline for an action to finish.
5
19840
5600
00:25
"By" marks the point where an action completes or is replaced by another
6
25440
4960
00:30
action, so really think about using "by" to express a deadline; something is going to
7
30400
5620
00:36
stop, or you must finish an action at this point in time. So we can think about
8
36030
7410
00:43
"by" as marking some point in the future. So "by" mark some point in the future
9
43440
10060
00:53
where an action is going to finish, an action is going to be completed. So in an
10
53500
6379
00:59
example sentence I have, I'll be at the office by 7 pm.
11
59880
5280
01:05
So in this sentence, the
12
65160
1620
01:06
speaker is not at the office, but 7 pm is the deadline, this is the point in
13
66780
7290
01:14
time at which the speaker will be at the office. The speaker is not at the office now,
14
74070
6930
01:21
but by 7 pm, by the 7 pm deadline, the speaker will be at the office.
15
81000
7220
01:28
This "will" shows us this is a future tense expression, and "by" shows us the deadline,
16
88220
7140
01:35
the point at which that expression or the point at which that action is going
17
95360
4420
01:39
to be completed. So this is how we use "by," to think about it like a deadline at
18
99780
5280
01:45
some point in time at which an action will be completed or finished.
19
105060
4480
01:49
Okay, so let's continue on to the other grammar point for today, which is "until."
20
109540
6240
01:56
"Until" also has a more casual form, we can use "till" or " 'til". You might
21
116400
8640
02:05
see both spellings used for "until," till or 'til. In most cases, it's good to use "until."
22
125040
7900
02:12
In casual speaking and maybe in casual writing, you can use the casual form, but
23
132940
5300
02:18
"until" is always polite and is always correct. Okay, so when we use "until," let's
24
138510
7350
02:25
talk about when to use "until." We use "until" to talk about a continuing
25
145870
5610
02:31
situation or a continuing state now in the present or in the future, but it's
26
151480
6990
02:38
going to change or stop, so the key difference, one key difference here,
27
158470
6630
02:45
perhaps, is a continuing situation, a continuing state. With "by," the nuance is a
28
165100
6620
02:51
deadline something is going to finish at a deadline; here, however, "until" gives us
29
171720
6400
02:58
the nuance of something that's continuing, something true now, for
30
178120
5310
03:03
example, but that may not be true in the future. "Until" marks the point where that
31
183430
6570
03:10
action or that state is going to finish or change.
32
190000
3740
03:14
Okay, so we can think of it rather than as a deadline, as a key point in the
33
194840
8600
03:23
future, somewhere where action A continues until a point where we use
34
203440
8790
03:32
"until," and then a second action begins. Something is going to change at the
35
212230
7320
03:39
"until" point. With "by," however, we don't have the nuance of an action changing, we
36
219550
6360
03:45
only have the nuance of a deadline, so here "until" is used to show that
37
225910
4590
03:50
something different is going to happen, or something will finish but
38
230500
5940
03:56
there's going to be a change after the the "until" point. So, for example, this sentence,
39
236440
7800
04:04
very similar to the "by" example sentence, is: I'll be at the office until 7 pm.
40
244240
8200
04:12
So here we have the future tense, I'll, I will, I'll be at the office until 7 pm.
41
252440
8200
04:20
This sentence shows us the speaker is at the office right now,
42
260640
4810
04:25
however, at 7 pm, "until" shows us that 7 pm is the point at which the
43
265450
8520
04:33
situation or this state is going to change, so at 7 pm, the speaker is
44
273970
6290
04:40
probably going to leave the office. "Until" shows us that right here, the action or
45
280260
6490
04:46
the state is going to change, so please keep that in mind.
46
286750
3960
04:50
"Until" shows you a change in something; "by" shows more of a deadline for an action that is continuing.
47
290710
7510
04:58
So I hope that we can practice this in a few example sentences now. Okay!
48
298220
6780
05:05
So let's try to choose the correct word to use in these example sentences.
49
305000
5140
05:10
Should we use "by" or should we use "until" in these cases? So the first one I have is:
50
310140
5920
05:16
He has to find a new job ____ March.
51
316060
4720
05:20
So in this case, we see a point in time, we can think about it, should we use "by" or "until" here? If we use "by,"
52
320780
10680
05:31
we see that the deadline, the deadline nuance, matches here.
53
331460
5260
05:36
He has to find a new job by March.
54
336720
3320
05:40
If we use "until," he has to find a new job until March, there's no
55
340920
5260
05:46
information in this sentence that shows us a hint or that gives us a hint about
56
346180
5340
05:51
how the action is going to change. "Until" does not make sense for this question, so
57
351520
6060
05:57
we should use "by" in this case. He has to find a new job by March is the correct
58
357580
5700
06:03
answer for this sentence. In the second sentence,
59
363280
3666
06:06
I'm not going to go to bed ____ I finish this movie.
60
366946
5054
06:12
So in this sentence, we have, at the end, I finish this movie,
61
372000
5420
06:17
so there's some action, maybe that's continuing here, and we have
62
377420
5080
06:22
another action. I'm not going to go to bed, in this case, it's a negative, so
63
382510
5790
06:28
there are two actions here, this is a pretty good hint that there's an action
64
388300
4740
06:33
that's going to change at some point instead of the nuance of a deadline. So
65
393040
5140
06:38
for the sentence, "until" is the best answer.
66
398180
3520
06:41
I'm not going to go to bed until I finish this movie.
67
401700
8060
06:49
This shows us that at this point, the point where I finish the movie, I'm
68
409760
3920
06:53
going to go to bed. This marks the change in the continuing
69
413680
4500
06:58
state or the continuing situation. So the next sentence is:
70
418180
4551
07:02
They need to write their reports _____ tomorrow.
71
422740
3780
07:06
So this sentence, there's no change in the
72
426520
3360
07:09
sentence, we don't have any hints about some kind of different action that's
73
429880
4050
07:13
going to happen, instead we have maybe what seems to be a deadline, some
74
433930
5760
07:19
requirement here, too. So if we try to use "until" it doesn't make sense, there's no
75
439690
7110
07:26
changing action, we can't guess about what might happen in the future or a
76
446800
5220
07:32
change that might happen. So "by" is the best answer here.
77
452020
4180
07:36
They need to write their reports by tomorrow.
78
456200
3320
07:39
Tomorrow is the deadline.
79
459520
2000
07:41
So we can guess that tomorrow is the deadline here, "by" shows us that it's the deadline in this case
80
461780
6220
07:48
for this task. Alright! Let's take a look at something a little bit different. Here we have,
81
468010
7520
07:55
We can't leave the house ____ your mother calls.
82
475530
4150
07:59
So again there are two situations, there are two actions involved in this sentence.
83
479680
6860
08:06
we have "leave the house" and "your mother calls" (makes a phone call). So because there are two
84
486540
6520
08:13
actions here, we can guess that there's some change that's going to happen, so
85
493060
6340
08:19
because we learned that "until" marks a change in actions, we know that "until" is
86
499400
7480
08:26
the better answer here. Okay.
87
506880
3520
08:30
We can't leave the house until your mother calls
88
510400
2760
08:33
would be the correct sentence here. Alright! So let's look at the next
89
513160
5550
08:38
sentence though, this one is a tricky sentence, this one is a little bit difficult, we have:
90
518710
5781
08:44
I'm not going to be there ____ 8 pm.
91
524491
5199
08:49
So here we have 8 pm at the end of a sentence, which looks like a deadline, right?
92
529690
6210
08:56
We have going to be there.
93
536040
3120
08:59
So should we use "by" or "until" for this sentence?
94
539840
3800
09:03
It's difficult because, actually, both are okay for this sentence.
95
543640
4820
09:09
I'm not going to be there by 8 pm is correct, and
96
549080
5900
09:14
I'm not going to be there until 8 pm is also correct.
97
554980
5460
09:20
However, the meanings are very different. Just as we practiced in these two
98
560440
5730
09:26
sentences, I'll be at the office until, I'll be at the office by 7 pm,
99
566170
5390
09:31
the same is true here.
100
571560
2220
09:33
I'm not going to be there by 8 pm
101
573780
3340
09:37
means I'm not going to be there at 8 pm, it's not possible for me, I can't go.
102
577120
6860
09:44
However, I'm not going to be there until 8 pm, this sentence means,
103
584740
6440
09:51
after 8 pm, or beginning at 8 pm and after, I'm going to be there. So please, be careful.
104
591180
7100
09:58
In some cases, both "by" and "until" are correct but they change the meaning
105
598280
6200
10:04
of the sentence. Okay, let's continue to another example.
106
604480
5010
10:09
So the next example sentence is also a little bit difficult, it's:
107
609490
5850
10:15
If my date doesn't arrive ____ 7 pm, I'm leaving.
108
615340
5120
10:20
Okay, so here, we have, we do have two actions, "doesn't arrive," my date doesn't arrive, a
109
620460
7840
10:28
negative point, and "I'm leaving." So it seems like there are two actions here.
110
628300
6360
10:34
However, we have this 7 pm, this marks a deadline, right? So if my date doesn't
111
634660
9900
10:44
arrive, there's some deadline here, if this is not completed, something is going
112
644560
8219
10:52
to happen, the person is going to leave. So in this case, 7 pm is showing a
113
652779
4921
10:57
deadline, so we have to use "by."
114
657700
3960
11:01
If my date doesn't arrive until 7 pm.
115
661660
3480
11:05
We could use that, but it doesn't sound so natural, so the nuance, again,
116
665140
7199
11:12
here is of a deadline, there's something that is going to happen at 7 pm.
117
672339
5011
11:17
7 pm marks the endpoint in this situation, so we use "by" here.
118
677350
6490
11:23
Okay, let's go to the next pair, again, these are very interesting points.
119
683840
4640
11:28
We have to leave the beach ____ 10 am. And, we have to stay at the beach ____ 10 am.
120
688480
9580
11:38
Okay, so these two sentences, I included because I
121
698060
4219
11:42
wanted to show the emphasis of changing actions and continuing actions, so we can
122
702279
6210
11:48
see the verbs are different here. In the first sentence, we have "leave" so this is
123
708489
5850
11:54
a change, leaving a location; in the second sentence, I have "stay" which shows
124
714339
6120
12:00
a continuing action, stay in one place. So here, as you can guess then,
125
720460
6000
12:06
We have to leave the beach ____ 10 am.
126
726460
3360
12:09
Some change, some deadline, so we'll use "by" to show our deadline.
127
729820
5820
12:16
In the second sentence, we have to stay at the beach, stay shows a continuing action,
128
736740
5940
12:22
and then it's going to finish here, so we'll use "until."
129
742680
4580
12:27
we have to stay at the beach until 10 am.
130
747280
4260
12:31
This shows us a continuing action, and maybe at 10 am we'll leave the beach.
131
751540
5680
12:37
Alright! Let's go on to the next sentence.
132
757980
3560
12:41
I'm not going to travel abroad ____ I learn English.
133
761540
4936
12:46
Okay, so here there's no time point, there's no 10 am, 8 pm, tomorrow, and so on, so this is a
134
766476
8733
12:55
little more complex, maybe. We have "travel abroad" and "learn English," so it seems
135
775209
6930
13:02
there's no real deadline here, but we have, maybe, a change, maybe this shows us
136
782139
7290
13:09
some kind of change. Learning English marks a change.
137
789429
3631
13:13
So, I'm not going to travel abroad until I learn English.
138
793060
6660
13:20
This shows us that something different is going to happen in the future, so we should use "until" to
139
800300
6300
13:26
mark that change. Okay, our last example sentence for today is,
140
806600
5020
13:31
We told him to wake up ____ 6 am.
141
811620
3720
13:35
So, once more, our last sentence may be a little bit simple, but 6 am shows us an action, sort of this
142
815340
7470
13:42
deadline, you can see a lot of these use a time to mark a deadline for an action.
143
822810
5690
13:48
So here, we told him to wake up by 6 am.
144
828860
4440
13:53
This is the point at which something
145
833300
2020
13:55
must happen, so we should use "by."
146
835320
3820
14:00
Ok! Great! So those are a few examples sentences that you can have a look at and think about
147
840500
6960
14:07
when you're trying to decide whether to use "by" or "until." Keep in mind, however, there are some cases
148
847460
6640
14:14
where both "by" or "until" are correct, but the meaning is going to change
149
854100
5640
14:19
significantly depending on the one you use. So I hope this lesson was useful for
150
859740
5820
14:25
you, if you have any questions or if you want to try to make an example sentence
151
865560
4350
14:29
using"by" or "until," please be sure to leave us a comment. If you liked this
152
869910
4800
14:34
video, too, please be sure to hit the thumbs up and subscribe to our channel if you
153
874710
4230
14:38
haven't already. Thanks very much for watching this episode, and we will see
154
878940
4020
14:42
you again soon. Bye!
155
882960
2080
About this website

This site will introduce you to YouTube videos that are useful for learning English. You will see English lessons taught by top-notch teachers from around the world. Double-click on the English subtitles displayed on each video page to play the video from there. The subtitles scroll in sync with the video playback. If you have any comments or requests, please contact us using this contact form.

https://forms.gle/WvT1wiN1qDtmnspy7