English prepositions: until / till.

Differences between until and till.

There is no difference in meaning between till and until. However, till is used in more colloquial and spoken English and until should be used in more formal written text.

Until / till as prepositions of time.

It is important to remember that until / till are prepositions of time only and not of place:

I waited for Mary until / till 10 o'clock.

The students study in the library until / till it closes.

Ducks stay on the lake until / till June. Then they leave for Africa.

We cannot say:

~~Go down this street~~ ~~until / till~~ ~~the cathedral~~.

~~We drove~~ ~~until / till~~ ~~Madrid~~.

This is because cathedral and Madrid are places and do not refer to time. However, we can say:

Go down this street until / till you get to the cathedral.

We drove until / till we arrived in Madrid.

When we use get to and arrive in here, we are referring to time; eg. when you get there, when we arrived.

Exercise: use of until and till...