hey there aubrey how's it going today i'm great how are you what's up with you what's up with me
what's up with me what shaken as i like to say what shaken did i just see your puppy behind
you you guys this is on video i think i saw him walk by he was he's so cute you know he's two now
which is great he's still not a puppy anymore that went fast but he's still got the heart of a puppy
he really does he just wants to play all day he sees a dog he's like let's play and he goes nuts
it's just so cute yeah i love that that's actually really fun do you take him to like
a dog park pretty often to play with other dogs we do we do that a lot we just did that last night we
took there they went around and they were all just very bouncy dogs they were having so much fun it's
adorable it makes it a lot easier to meet people right when if you have a kid or a dog i feel like
it's easier to approach other adults than talk about the dog or the kid that's very true that's
very true i love it i love it what's going on in your world today yeah well my kids are in school
so i'm getting a lot done i'm very excited to be on the mic with you we had a really
interesting question i was just letting lindsay know that i actually learned kind of something um
researching a little bit for this question because english is evolving you guys words change the
dictionary is updated constantly to match more how we're using words which i always say don't
correct anyone's grammar because for all you know it's changed the dictionary's been updated and
it's different from what you learned maybe from a textbook yeah that can happen sometimes absolutely
and i really do believe like we you know that's part of alders english's kind of concept or vision
is that language is dynamic it does change there are certain people that believe that language is
is static and that it doesn't change and that it should be preserved but preserved back to
what right if you're going to go that route how far back you like shakespeare or what english
yeah so we like to go with reality and reality is that it's always changing
exactly right and this we're talking about until and till today and it has it has changed so you've
likely heard native english speakers use till in multiple contexts so today we're going to break
down how we use this and share ways that you can use it to build connections while answering a very
insightful listener question okay so the key words are until and till then is that right just to make
sure we're clear okay yeah exactly great you want to read the question for us lindsay i was going to
ask you if you would read it for oh sure i'm on it yes so this is from alan he said hi lindsay
michelle jessica and aubry i've been listening to others english for a couple of years now i must
say you're fascinating your podcast has really taken me to the high league of english speakers
i love that i was wondering if you could discuss what the differences are between the use of
after until after i've heard here and there how people use it but i guess that there's a oh i've
got the wrong question here sorry we're gonna have to start over oh i don't know where i put
the question but that's not a problem hey this is connection not perfect we can rescue this episode
hey guys we made a little mistake with the wrong question written in but do you can you paraphrase
the question from the student oh no this is it this is it because okay that's funny it was after
until after here we go okay i've heard here and there how people use it but i guess that there's a
subtle difference between them in each case thanks again and keep the high energy best alan that's so
funny because while i was reading it i was like oh this is more about after but no the question
is when do we use after and when do we use till after so then the more i dove into it the question
is really about until versus till so we're going to answer allen's question and then dive even a
little deeper about how until has changed yeah and i feel like i'm going to learn something new here
too right i mean this is great these episodes do force us to go deeper into english and really pay
attention to what our friends are saying in our world as native speakers and sometimes we go into
the dictionary as well right aubry yes exactly i did need to do that because i wanted to know like
how has this changed why has this changed right what and and i've seen till written apostrophe
t-i-l and also t-i-l-l and honestly i thought that one was a mistake and so i dove in a little deeper
and turns out it's not so let's give you guys a little background first of all until t-i-l-l was
actually used first that's actually the oldest and then we had it evolved to be until we took a
different part of a word on and add it to till and so that's what really has changed so now when you
see t-i-l-l you think of it as much more informal but that actually was the original use that's so
fascinating that is fascinating i thought it was just a shortening like a lazy version until but
it's an original version i know fascinating right so that t-i-l-l is the original version
we use them of course in modern english to denote when something will happen
until until t-i-l-l are both still standard you both see them in the dictionary okay and then
yeah that's what really surprises people is that till is older but then it's different if you see
apostrophe t-i-l that is what is newer right we've dropped an l add that apostrophe that's
more informal usually we we would just see it in like poems even but then we've adopted that into
spoken english a lot it's a more informal version to say till and there's a lot of expressions that
we use it in sure or even songs lyrics right yes okay so to jump back to the question really quick
till has the same meaning as until right so till after means the same thing as
until after but it's true that you'll sort of hear them in different contexts
we use it most often to give directions for how long someone should wait to do something is when
we use till after so we have a couple of sentences that you might hear that in you want to share one
of those lindsay yeah let's do some examples let our listeners kind of sink their teeth
into some examples so don't look at this till after school right so maybe it's a letter and
the mom doesn't want the kid to look at it before during school so you have to wait until after or
till after school exactly or you can't have dessert till after dinner oh i always hated that i
always wanted to write dessert first always or we waited till after it stopped raining to go outside
yeah that's now it's interesting to note these just have the same meaning as until after so it
would not be incorrect to say you know don't look at this until after school you can't have dessert
until after dinner the reason we often choose till is to save time right we're shortening words
all the time and depending on the rhythm of the sentence so sometimes you will hear a native say
until or till instead and it is sort of to keep because english has a certain rhythm i think you
just froze up there a little bit for me aubry are you there can you hear me yes can you hear
me oh our video froze but we're back we're back on track all right so going into the next piece right
i think i missed part of what you said keep going aubrey yeah so we also use till the apostrophe til
just to replace until and we don't always add after and the meaning is a little different so
when we're saying till after we're giving a specific time until after something specific
school or dinner but just till we might say you know don't open till your birthday
or don't open until later it's a more undefined or general time got it i love it i love it so good
and again this is such natural english we need this little construction to be able to
communicate in everyday english it's so common of course we're always talking about time frames
right yeah and there are some really fun phrases that are commonly written with this more informal
apostrophe til so we're going to share three of you of three of these with you you should
definitely be using them you want to understand them when natives use them you've likely heard
them before and maybe you didn't understand why we would say until or till now you know it's just
we're speaking faster we're shortening it it would be grammatically accurate to say until but
for these next three expressions it actually would be a little strange to say until because they've
become idiomatic in their usage where we use this expression word for word just like this so
for example till next time right you'll often hear this an announcer will say till next time meaning
like see you next time and it would be strange for them to say until next time right i love that and
then in line the same line same idea is till we meet again where do we hear that typically i'm
trying to place that aubrey where would i hear that you know i hear that most often in church
it'll often be in songs like we said it's poetic right it's in songs and we'll hear that idea till
we meet again and it is a little more formal i i can imagine maybe one of my grandparents saying
this today this to me you know until we meet again even though you're using that til it's sort of a
formal way of saying see you later see you next time we see you i love it so you may hear it
guys you can decide which of these you really want to use and which of them don't make sense
with your own personality right that's that's where you guys are at right now with your english
which is so exciting you can be creative with your language number two is shop till you drop
yes what about you lindsay do you like to shop till you drop that means like shop for a long
time that doesn't mean go and buy one thing and leave no i hate shopping i am not a shopper i
sometimes i'll have like it's hit or miss for me right every time but if i have like a hit like
early if it has to be early on in my shopping day that i find something that is perfect and it fits
and then i'll feel really positive about it but eventually i hit a wall and it's like an hour
to i cannot i can't do it i lose energy it's so draining for me shopping i love that expression
it's the same for me and i love that to hit a wall it's such a like a visual where you imagine just a
wall and you cannot go farther you can't do it anymore it's rob i get there quickly yeah it's
what about you aubrey do you like to check on the same i really don't like shopping especially if
it's for like i'll have to take my kids shopping and that's the hardest because it's not i'm not
even shopping for myself there's nothing fun it's just sort of a duty something you have to do
i try to make it fun my kids love shopping so i have to be okay with it taking longer than i want
to be there but i'm the same i hit a wall and i'm just done let's go that's funny that your
kids love shopping and you don't like it i know it's like the worst case scenario but i guess it
wouldn't be fun either if i loved shopping and dr i had to drag them with me and they didn't love
it but honestly sometimes they're old enough now that i can just drop them off at the mall or at
target i'll just give them money and be like just go shop i don't want to go without you decide what
the mall culture i can't stand we have quite a mall culture in the united states and i am not a
fan you know it's i feel like it's for like young teenagers anymore right i don't want to be at the
mall but they love it they love wandering shop to shop maybe meeting with friends getting a little
something to eat something fun for them to do yeah so it's good it keeps them out of trouble right
there you go um all right so there's one more that's also very common and fun what is it aubrey
yeah it's it ain't over till it's over you guys have heard this word ain't which is very slang
for isn't and this whole phrase you'll hear together it ain't over till it's over which
it's easy to understand it means what it's saying right something isn't over until it's really over
but we use this more often to i think talk about something that we want to end quicker
but we recognize like this is going to take longer yeah that or i also think of in a game if a team
is ahead let's say i'm watching a baseball game and my team is losing and you know but my friend
is kind of boasting that his team is winning let's say right like i could say it ain't over till it's
over right oh yeah that's true we do start saying like don't count them out they might be behind
but it's not over until it's over exactly and guys we've talked a lot about the word ain't and
when it's okay to use it and when you honestly just shouldn't use it you know there's just a few
words in english language that we don't recommend but in this case it's okay because it's a chunk
it's a saying and everyone knows that you're not using ain't in a fully genuine way right aubry
you're using it in a saying way and it gives you a pass exactly right it makes it more lighthearted
and fun it's part of this expression and so you could use this expression at business in a meeting
right if somebody's saying oh we don't know about this project things aren't looking good you say it
ain't over till it's over because you're using this expression it's expected to use that word
so even though it's slaying it would still be appropriate exactly but just as long as you're
not taking the word out and using it alone in your own sentence don't do that especially in business
then you're okay if you stay within the phrase right yeah i'm glad you pointed that out because
it's true ain't is one of those words that is can be really grating if people are using
it in the wrong context it's very slang so you do have to be a little yeah yeah it's a really
interesting case we've talked to michelle and i've talked quite a bit about that on the show
fascinating there's just a handful of words in english that we we warn you against right
and that's one of them so all right do we have a role play aubry yes so just like we were talking
about in the beginning you and i are friends and we're chatting at a dog park all right i
love it i love to be at the dog park so here we go stardust ready how's it going training your puppy
well not bad definite improvements but potty training is still touch and go
oh that's rough it ain't over till it's over that's for sure what have you got going on
for the rest of the day i have to take my kids school shopping so you know shop till you drop
do you like do they like do they like shopping they like it more than i do i hate clothes
shopping well good luck with that i gotta run till next time bye nice i like how you know our role
play here is similar to the conversation that we just had together that was spontaneous and natural
right yes for sure right you got two examples one scripted and then one that was very spontaneous
but on the same both about the shopping and about the dog park yeah very interesting i probably just
had both on the brain because i wrote that role play probably i love it and there's a bonus phrase
for our listeners for today this will probably be in the app right aubry most likely definitely for
something to be touch and go you had said oh potty training potty training is still touch
and go which means sometimes it's going great sometimes not so great that's a really fun idiom
yeah it really depends on the day right um absolutely and then i said oh that's rough
it ain't over until it's over that's what you said yeah it ain't over until it's over and
a little intonation there will make that more interesting guys it ain't over until it's over
yeah that's true we go up in the middle and then back down when we say that expression good point
and then you asked what i had going on and i said shop till you drop because we're going
shopping and i'm guessing with the intonation there i've been like you know shop till you drop
and you could tell you're done sound like she loves shopping yeah i mean guys this is sarcasm
right and we need to do more episodes i think on sarcasm because i'm not sure how common it is in
other languages it really or how it's expressed but obviously yeah it's definitely a different
culture to culture so that's true more often it's it's good to point it out and do specific episodes
where we can share this is how you use sarcasm correctly because you can accidentally just be
mean without meaning to we do it yeah we're very sarcastic in american english but you need to
it's like understanding the whole context of everything that is being said and then you know
who's going to start destination that's huge but just to know guys that is sarcastic right there so
we'll talk about that another day um let's see what else and then you ended it right with until
next time which is a fun way to just say see you later yeah especially if i i'd love this
for if we're meeting at a dog park and that's where i usually see you right we both have a
dog and we're meeting there you know that you might see me next time you come to the dog park
that's a very appropriate way to say until next time yeah that makes total sense and that is the
thing you can make dog for dog owner friends right you meet people and you see the same
people over and over it's kind of a cool little culture in your neighborhood at the park with
like this happens a lot where you see you run into the same people depending on where you're going
and so that would be a great way to say bye to say until next time yeah because that's what brings
you together is have your kids the playground or your dog at the dog park or something like that
so good all right what's our takeaway for our listener today aubry yeah so to use these
expressions with till they're very native and natural and then to shorten until to save time to
be a little more informal this is very native this is a good way for you guys to build connections so
maybe listen to this episode again pay attention to these example phrases and the role play how how
do natives use until how does it change the rhythm how are we saving time and then you can use these
words too to just sound native and natural build those connections yeah and huge thank you to our
listener alan for sending in this question we love your questions guys you can send them in to
lindsay at allairdenglish.com if you have a good question good stuff aubry awesome great well i'll
see you on the next step so thanks for hanging out today yeah till next time bye till next time bye
you