Grab a girl here, today Bonnie Trenge will help us understand the word until, which appears

to be ambiguous, especially when you pair it with a deadline.

If a teacher tells you that you have until April 26, to turn in your essay, does that mean

you can turn it in on April 26, or must you hand it in no later than April 25?

Listen on and find out.

Now before we discuss dates, we need to talk about the four ways to write an alternative

to until.

Are you allowed to use TIL, apostrophe TIL, TIL, and apostrophe TIL instead of until?

We can quickly cross till with two L's in one apostrophe off the list.

It's considered non-standard.

On the other hand, TIL, with one L in one apostrophe, is acceptable, but etymologically incorrect

according to the American Heritage Dictionary.

You may find yourself wanting to use TIL with one L in no apostrophe.

According to dictionary.com, that word means the SMA plant.

So you probably don't want to use that if you mean until.

Now we've come to the word TIL with no apostrophe in two L's.

Yes, you may use this TIL in the same way as until.

Although expert Brian Garner states that TIL is somewhat less formal than until.

Interestingly enough, dictionary.com states that the word TIL was coined before until.

TIL appeared around 900, whereas until arrived between 1150 and 1200.

Now we have to help a confused sentence-loothed blog reader named Judy, who wrote, quote,

I recently missed an important deadline because I thought that the word TIL included the date mentioned.

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