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Grammar 8
I’ve got to get this project finished until tomorrow.
Correction: It should be by tomorrow.
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You use ‘until’ to mean ‘up to a particular time’: We’re here until tomorrow. I’ll be working here until Friday. We have until 3pm to get the job finished. Until is used to talk about the period before the deadline.
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By is a time preposition and tells you when the job or activity is to be complete. It means ‘on’ or ‘before’. It tells you when: We’ll here but we should be finished by Friday. We’ve got to get this job finished by 3pm or we could be in trouble.
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To summarise, ‘by’ is used to focus on the deadline and not before it, while ‘until’ focuses on the period before the deadline and not on it.
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