Grammer

Question

what is the difference and the uses of till and by?

Tranquility · Accepted Answer

Till is a preposition and a conjunction. If it is used as a preposition, it shouldn't be followed by a verb. If it is a conjunction, it can be followed by a verb.
-1- Preposition: till
Up to, before the time
"too expensive till now";
-2- Conjunction: till
a time that
"sleep till it gets light";

As for 'by', it definitely has several meanings and different usages, but I guess you meant one of these meanings and usages which is close to 'till'. By is a preposition and one of its meanings is:not later than, at or before the end of a given time. For example,

"She had promised to be back by five o'clock."

"The application must be in by the 31st to be accepted".

"get it done by 9am tomorrow"

If you examine the examples above carefully, certainly you can find that there is a difference between till and by.

My personal opinion is that 'till' includes the time that is mentioned after it , for example, I played football till 9Pm. 'By' does not include the time that is mentioned after, i.e. I must stop playing football by 9 PM: this means I must stop before that time approaches; namely, the deadline is 9.

Also, the time that comes after 'by' is given, so you sense that 'by' is associated with a condition, whereas the time that comes after 'till' is not given by somebody; it only determines the time at which an activity is finished.

By 2 o'clock, you should be home.

I was out till 2 o'clock.[being away from home ends at 2 o'clock]

All in all, the difference between 'by' and 'till' is about the meaning they give to the sentence. My advice to you is to read as much as you can and to try to find other examples which will make the difference clearer.

I tried to be helpful.

Martinmaden · Answer

Anonymouswhat is the difference and the uses of till and by?

English Grammar

Answer:

Let's deal with "till" first. In a good English dictionary, till has four meanings:
1. To till the land - means to prepare and use land for planting and raising crops.

2. - This is the word that you are enquiring about. In grammatical terms it can be used as a preposition - controlling or governing a noun, or as a conjunction - joining words or phrases in a sentence.

So when you use till as a preposition, it would appear in sentences such as:
"You should wait till dark before you take off your sun glasses - unless you are Ray Charles.

Used as a conjunction, till would appear in sentences such as:
"One could wait till the cows come home". Here, till is just a connection between two ideas.

Back to your question: "What is the difference and the uses of till and by?"
"By" in grammatical terms is a preposition and can appear is a sentence such as:
"We should be finished by midnight".

With regard to your question, the differentiation between "till" and "by" concerns the need to, on the one hand, make reference to time as a specific noun and on the other hand, make reference to the duration of something. This confusion is very subtle, hence the trouble.

One way to be clear about which of the two words to use in which case, is to remember that till is used to make a precise reference to a particular point in time, while by is used to refer to the duration of a particular period, usually from the time one is speaking to another point specified in the sentence. In any case, when you use the word by to refer to a time space, it is assumed that your listener is aware of the point of departure of the particular activity and by referring to the point when the action is expected to end, you are able to specify a duration of time.

Therefore: "We should be finished by midnight" - If my listener is clear that the starting point is midday, then I am talking about an activity that will have a duration of six hours. If I want to use the word "till" the sentence would be:
"We can only play till midnight". The reference here is to the noun, midnight - the time when we have to stop, and not to the duration of six hours.

Best Wishes,
Martin

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ps: other meanings of "till":

3. A temporary place where money is kept by a shopkeeper in a shop or a bank teller in a bank.

4. Stiff clay soil.

Grammer

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