Difference between Until/Till, Anyone?

think it all means until anway you look at that Amy some just shorten it but I think it basically means the same thing

Till is often considered an abbreviated form of until, but it is actually the earliest form of the conjunction and preposition. Both are legitimate but until is the form used at the beginning of sentences. The abbreviation 'til is used only for humorous effect; neither 'till nor til is used at all.

The conjunction "till" is not a shortening of "until".


"till" is dated from the 12th century and "until" from the 13th century.

"Until" was a compound, whose first element also survives in "unto",
and whose second element was the ancestor of "till".

I found these info but I can't for nuts figure out which to use where.

"till"12th century old norse-- assumed but same meaning. Anyway that's what i found when I looked it up in the encarta and dictionary and theasouras

I found this from dictionary.com:

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.

Yeah. I also think these two words are interchangeable ! But , until is used to start a sentence , wheras , till doesn't seem to be correct in that way !
We use it as ........like in ....You continue walking TILL you reach the last house !
And, until you reach the last house , continue walking .

I found this online:

http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-unt1.htm

UNTIL, TILL AND 'TIL
[Q] From Michael Kearns: "I have always believed that the shortened form of until was 'til. However, my father recently asked me for my thoughts, as someone had tried to convince him it should be spelled till as in 'eight till late'. On consulting his dictionary, that was indeed the only definition that could be found. We would be very grateful if you could clear up this situation for us."

[A] The status of 'til versus until and till is often argued about and most style guides have something to say on the matter.

The most common belief is that till is a shortened form of until. You can see how this could have grown up, but the truth of the matter is that till is by far the older word, being recorded from about the year 800, while it took another 400 years for until to appear in the language (it's a compound of till with the archaic Old Norse und, as far as, which also survives in the archaic unto). But the first sense of till was to, as it still can be, for example, in Scots and some dialects. Though the modern sense of till in standard English is always connected with time, this only appeared about 1300.

The current position is that until is the more common of the two words and is generally considered to be slightly more formal, which is why it turns up more often in edited prose. It is also rather more likely to appear at the beginning of a sentence than is till. But till is perfectly good English and the choice of whether to use it or until is often decided by the rhythm of the sentence.

Your father's version, 'til, has been created within the past century by people who believe that till is an abbreviation of until and want to mark it as such. It has often been said by style guides and dictionaries that it's a mistake and it arouses passion in some people. Most recent writers on language prefer to describe it as an informal version of until—it often turns up in newspapers, advertising and song lyrics, for example, and in informal set phrases like "shop 'til you drop", "It ain't over 'til it's over" or " 'Til we meet again". But to use the spelling til without the preceding apostrophe is still regarded as wrong.

World Wide Words is copyright © Michael Quinion, 1996–2006.

Thanks Nazrul. I do follow that rule!

Thanks a ton Lynn, this is very informative.

All the same to me.

you'll find slang in used in virtually every written language ...learning the proper spelling and meaning is hard but i like the slang i find usually started and kept and understood by most from their native homes ..i think its fun like example:boyz actually spelled ending in s not z sometimes it gets even harder to dicepher the younger the person but its intentionally done by most people.

till and until can be used interchangeably, reflecting time

until we meet again, till we meet again

but till is also a verb

to till the soil

Thanks, I learned something here!

I thought they were about the same but what Carol says makes since.

Ok just for fun. Your not going to play until you get your school work done. I can't do it till we get home. Maybe this will help I'm working off of one brain cell right now but here it is ( Your answers lie insude you. The answers to life's questions lie in side you. All you need to do is look ,listen,and trust. and until an till will find it's place.

Thanks Jay,

Good way to learn where to use which!

Carol, you make sense too.