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shouldn't there be one before til?

Nope. The word till actually predates until, and the un- prefix was added at a later date.

Last edited by zmjezhd; 03/03/11 03:50 PM.

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wow I never knew that! But if til has only one l should it have the '? ('til)


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As I understand 'til, it is short for until, and the
(*) helps the elide or whatever the missing letters UN
are called. So I'd put the (*).


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Originally Posted By: zmjezhd
shouldn't there be one before til?

Nope. The word till actually predates until[/o], and the [i]un- prefix was added at a later date.


Sorry once again I posted without seeing there is another
page of comments. Most interesting that til precedes the
until. Learned something new here. What a great site.

Yet I am still unclear - should there be the ' ?

Last edited by LukeJavan8; 03/02/11 04:36 PM.

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as is my wont, I followed up on jheem's post and found this:
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. [EA]

having read that usage note from AHD4, I have no further questions until/till/'til further notice.

oh, BTW, the Old English word for this was til, and the Old English word for the cash drawer was tille. till and till are separate words. then there is till (cultivate) and till (glacial drift).

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Ok, that helps. The apostrophe is really unnecessary.


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Originally Posted By: Candy
If 'bra' is like 'trouser' as in 'two cups' or 'two legs' to one item of clothing

why do some people put in the (') when making plural?

bras or bra's


My understanding is that adding just the s would change the pronunciation, the ' is to indicate that you don't change it not to indicate a missing syll'.

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and you could always put bra''s. One to indicate the missing ssiere and one to indicate the same sound... grin

and that was interesting...until/till/'til...I think I will try and not use any of them and save myself from embarrassment!


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Till today I didn't realise how much I do use that word.

And maybe TILL, UNTIL and TIL need a whole thread of their own. I have been reading up on all three. Even the dictionaries give conflicting information.

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As I understand 'til, it is short for until,

Well, that is how some folks rationalize it, but I see 'til as a mistake or hypercorrection for the standard till. I don't mind if folks use it and I certainly would not proscribe it, I just find it funny.


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