You’re going camping and want to borrow a friend’s tent over the weekend. So you say: “Could I have it ______ Friday afternoon? We’re leaving on Friday after work.”
Until or by?
- Until means from now until then.
- By, used for deadlines, means not later than then.
- By… at the latest!
- Imagine: If you said “until Friday”, your friend might say “Sure, until Friday is fine. But I need it on Saturday, so can you come round on Saturday morning to drop it off?”
- Here’s an exercise on using “until” and “by”, with a pdf.
2 Responses
These were your answers:
* by (88%, 7 votes)
* until (12%, 1 votes)