I was prepping for a good solid blog about one of my pet writing peeves when someone (the lovely and all-knowing Noelle Pierce) set me straight. Apparently, I've been getting worked up over something and there's been no need to.
The subject on the chopping block was going to be until/till. In my ignorance, I though 'till' was a cash register and when people used it as a shortened version of 'until' they were wrong. But guess what? They aren't wrong at all. Not only is it acceptable, but 'till' predates the usage of until! Crazy, right?
Well, to say the least, my mind was blown. When I wanted to use a short version of until I would use 'til. Which actually is frowned upon. Little did I know!
But the learning didn't stop there! Once I realized what a fool I've been all these years, I wanted to know more. Like, is there a difference between until and till? And the answer to that question is 'yes'. There is!
Who knew?
Well, apparently a whole bunch of people on the Internet knew.
Here's the difference:
Till- (meaning) the process (and the time-period) up to the point of time or action.
Until- (meaning) reference to the end-point in time of reference or commencement of an activity.
The key is to keep in mind where and what you want to emphasize upon.
Do you understand? Probably not, because I didn't. Instead of butchering an explanation for you, head on over HERE! and give it a read.
There is nothing like learning new things.
3 comments:
Thank you for clarifying that devilish bit of word usage. The English language is like a jungle gym, where half the bars are invisible, and the other half are illusory.
(We met on authonomy over a year ago; hope all is well with you.)
I remember you! Your book was Ghost Warrior, right? :D
ARGH! I just edited a bunch of 'till's to 'til's. Now I have to go back and fix them again. >.<
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