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

259,566 views ・ 2017-09-12

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Hi, everybody! My name is Alisha. Welcome
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back to our EnglishClass Channel. Today we're gonna be talking about the
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difference between "by" and "until." So let's get started!
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Okay, so first we're gonna talk about "by." "By" marks a deadline for an action to finish.
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"By" marks the point where an action completes or is replaced by another
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action, so really think about using "by" to express a deadline; something is going to
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stop, or you must finish an action at this point in time. So we can think about
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"by" as marking some point in the future. So "by" mark some point in the future
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where an action is going to finish, an action is going to be completed. So in an
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example sentence I have, I'll be at the office by 7 pm.
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So in this sentence, the
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speaker is not at the office, but 7 pm is the deadline, this is the point in
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time at which the speaker will be at the office. The speaker is not at the office now,
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but by 7 pm, by the 7 pm deadline, the speaker will be at the office.
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This "will" shows us this is a future tense expression, and "by" shows us the deadline,
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the point at which that expression or the point at which that action is going
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to be completed. So this is how we use "by," to think about it like a deadline at
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some point in time at which an action will be completed or finished.
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Okay, so let's continue on to the other grammar point for today, which is "until."
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"Until" also has a more casual form, we can use "till" or " 'til". You might
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see both spellings used for "until," till or 'til. In most cases, it's good to use "until."
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In casual speaking and maybe in casual writing, you can use the casual form, but
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"until" is always polite and is always correct. Okay, so when we use "until," let's
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talk about when to use "until." We use "until" to talk about a continuing
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situation or a continuing state now in the present or in the future, but it's
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going to change or stop, so the key difference, one key difference here,
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perhaps, is a continuing situation, a continuing state. With "by," the nuance is a
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deadline something is going to finish at a deadline; here, however, "until" gives us
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the nuance of something that's continuing, something true now, for
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example, but that may not be true in the future. "Until" marks the point where that
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action or that state is going to finish or change.
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Okay, so we can think of it rather than as a deadline, as a key point in the
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future, somewhere where action A continues until a point where we use
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"until," and then a second action begins. Something is going to change at the
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"until" point. With "by," however, we don't have the nuance of an action changing, we
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only have the nuance of a deadline, so here "until" is used to show that
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something different is going to happen, or something will finish but
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there's going to be a change after the the "until" point. So, for example, this sentence,
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very similar to the "by" example sentence, is: I'll be at the office until 7 pm.
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So here we have the future tense, I'll, I will, I'll be at the office until 7 pm.
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This sentence shows us the speaker is at the office right now,
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however, at 7 pm, "until" shows us that 7 pm is the point at which the
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situation or this state is going to change, so at 7 pm, the speaker is
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probably going to leave the office. "Until" shows us that right here, the action or
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the state is going to change, so please keep that in mind.
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"Until" shows you a change in something; "by" shows more of a deadline for an action that is continuing.
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So I hope that we can practice this in a few example sentences now. Okay!
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So let's try to choose the correct word to use in these example sentences.
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Should we use "by" or should we use "until" in these cases? So the first one I have is:
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He has to find a new job ____ March.
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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,"
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we see that the deadline, the deadline nuance, matches here.
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He has to find a new job by March.
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If we use "until," he has to find a new job until March, there's no
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information in this sentence that shows us a hint or that gives us a hint about
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how the action is going to change. "Until" does not make sense for this question, so
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we should use "by" in this case. He has to find a new job by March is the correct
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answer for this sentence. In the second sentence,
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I'm not going to go to bed ____ I finish this movie.
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So in this sentence, we have, at the end, I finish this movie,
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so there's some action, maybe that's continuing here, and we have
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another action. I'm not going to go to bed, in this case, it's a negative, so
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there are two actions here, this is a pretty good hint that there's an action
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that's going to change at some point instead of the nuance of a deadline. So
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for the sentence, "until" is the best answer.
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I'm not going to go to bed until I finish this movie.
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This shows us that at this point, the point where I finish the movie, I'm
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going to go to bed. This marks the change in the continuing
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state or the continuing situation. So the next sentence is:
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They need to write their reports _____ tomorrow.
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So this sentence, there's no change in the
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sentence, we don't have any hints about some kind of different action that's
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going to happen, instead we have maybe what seems to be a deadline, some
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requirement here, too. So if we try to use "until" it doesn't make sense, there's no
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changing action, we can't guess about what might happen in the future or a
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change that might happen. So "by" is the best answer here.
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They need to write their reports by tomorrow.
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Tomorrow is the deadline.
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So we can guess that tomorrow is the deadline here, "by" shows us that it's the deadline in this case
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for this task. Alright! Let's take a look at something a little bit different. Here we have,
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We can't leave the house ____ your mother calls.
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So again there are two situations, there are two actions involved in this sentence.
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we have "leave the house" and "your mother calls" (makes a phone call). So because there are two
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actions here, we can guess that there's some change that's going to happen, so
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because we learned that "until" marks a change in actions, we know that "until" is
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the better answer here. Okay.
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We can't leave the house until your mother calls
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would be the correct sentence here. Alright! So let's look at the next
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sentence though, this one is a tricky sentence, this one is a little bit difficult, we have:
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I'm not going to be there ____ 8 pm.
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So here we have 8 pm at the end of a sentence, which looks like a deadline, right?
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We have going to be there.
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So should we use "by" or "until" for this sentence?
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It's difficult because, actually, both are okay for this sentence.
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I'm not going to be there by 8 pm is correct, and
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I'm not going to be there until 8 pm is also correct.
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However, the meanings are very different. Just as we practiced in these two
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sentences, I'll be at the office until, I'll be at the office by 7 pm,
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the same is true here.
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I'm not going to be there by 8 pm
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means I'm not going to be there at 8 pm, it's not possible for me, I can't go.
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However, I'm not going to be there until 8 pm, this sentence means,
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after 8 pm, or beginning at 8 pm and after, I'm going to be there. So please, be careful.
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In some cases, both "by" and "until" are correct but they change the meaning
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of the sentence. Okay, let's continue to another example.
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So the next example sentence is also a little bit difficult, it's:
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If my date doesn't arrive ____ 7 pm, I'm leaving.
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Okay, so here, we have, we do have two actions, "doesn't arrive," my date doesn't arrive, a
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negative point, and "I'm leaving." So it seems like there are two actions here.
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However, we have this 7 pm, this marks a deadline, right? So if my date doesn't
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arrive, there's some deadline here, if this is not completed, something is going
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to happen, the person is going to leave. So in this case, 7 pm is showing a
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deadline, so we have to use "by."
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If my date doesn't arrive until 7 pm.
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We could use that, but it doesn't sound so natural, so the nuance, again,
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here is of a deadline, there's something that is going to happen at 7 pm.
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7 pm marks the endpoint in this situation, so we use "by" here.
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Okay, let's go to the next pair, again, these are very interesting points.
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We have to leave the beach ____ 10 am. And, we have to stay at the beach ____ 10 am.
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Okay, so these two sentences, I included because I
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wanted to show the emphasis of changing actions and continuing actions, so we can
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see the verbs are different here. In the first sentence, we have "leave" so this is
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a change, leaving a location; in the second sentence, I have "stay" which shows
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a continuing action, stay in one place. So here, as you can guess then,
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We have to leave the beach ____ 10 am.
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Some change, some deadline, so we'll use "by" to show our deadline.
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In the second sentence, we have to stay at the beach, stay shows a continuing action,
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and then it's going to finish here, so we'll use "until."
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we have to stay at the beach until 10 am.
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This shows us a continuing action, and maybe at 10 am we'll leave the beach.
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Alright! Let's go on to the next sentence.
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I'm not going to travel abroad ____ I learn English.
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Okay, so here there's no time point, there's no 10 am, 8 pm, tomorrow, and so on, so this is a
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little more complex, maybe. We have "travel abroad" and "learn English," so it seems
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there's no real deadline here, but we have, maybe, a change, maybe this shows us
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some kind of change. Learning English marks a change.
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So, I'm not going to travel abroad until I learn English.
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This shows us that something different is going to happen in the future, so we should use "until" to
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mark that change. Okay, our last example sentence for today is,
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We told him to wake up ____ 6 am.
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So, once more, our last sentence may be a little bit simple, but 6 am shows us an action, sort of this
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deadline, you can see a lot of these use a time to mark a deadline for an action.
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So here, we told him to wake up by 6 am.
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This is the point at which something
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must happen, so we should use "by."
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Ok! Great! So those are a few examples sentences that you can have a look at and think about
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when you're trying to decide whether to use "by" or "until." Keep in mind, however, there are some cases
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where both "by" or "until" are correct, but the meaning is going to change
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significantly depending on the one you use. So I hope this lesson was useful for
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you, if you have any questions or if you want to try to make an example sentence
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using"by" or "until," please be sure to leave us a comment. If you liked this
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video, too, please be sure to hit the thumbs up and subscribe to our channel if you
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haven't already. Thanks very much for watching this episode, and we will see
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you again soon. Bye!
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