Speaker 1: Deadlines. We all have them, and so we need to
talk about them. Finish your homework by Friday, work hard
until the weekend, and you can't have any fun unless
you're done doing what you have to do. Bye, until
and unless. Let's check it out.
Speaker 2: Welcome to another Happy English podcast, coming to you from
New York City. And here's your English teacher, Michael.
Speaker 1: All right, thank you John, and thanks everyone. It's Michael
here from Happy English and I help people speak English better.
And this is Happy English Podcast Episode eight hundred. Wow
deadlines with buye, until, and unless. We use the words by,
until and unless to talk about a deadline, but the
way we use these words can be a pain in
the neck for a lot of English learners. Fear not,
my friends. For today's English Lesson podcast, we're going to
do a deep dive into these similar but tricky common
vocabulary words. Let's start off with buy something finishes or
ends by a certain time. When you finish something by
a certain time, by a certain day, or by a
certain date, you complete the action when that deadline comes.
The key point that I want you to understand here
is that we use by with verbs that show one
time actions or verbs that mean finishing or ending, like
you can finish by, end by, complete by, arrive by,
start by, go by, and sw on. We use by
with verbs like those followed by one point in time,
like your boss might say, please complete that report by
five o'clock on Friday, or you may ask a friend,
can you finish work by six o'clock tonight? If so
we can catch a movie, or if we arrive at
the station by three pm, we can catch the express train.
On the other hand, something continues or keeps going until
a certain time. When you continue something until a certain time,
until a certain day or until a certain date, you
continue doing that action and then stopping when the deadline comes.
In cases like these, we use until with verbs that
show continuous actions, like you can continue until, stay until,
work until, have until, and do something until a certain time.
We use until with verbs like those followed by one
point in time, like the boss might say, you have
until Friday to complete that report, or you may tell
a friend, Hey, I'm working until six tonight, so let's
try to catch a movie after that, or we have
until three pm to arrive at the station to catch
the express train. Let's look at two of these examples
the boss said, please complete that report by Friday, or
the boss said you have until Friday to complete that report.
Complete it by Friday, or you have until Friday. The
basic meaning is the same. The deadline is Friday. The
difference is that when you say by Friday, the emphasis
is on the deadline, which is Friday. When you say
you have until Friday, the emphasis is on the time
between now and the deadline. That's the basic difference between
by and until. It's all about the emphasis. By the way,
you can also use until with a negative verb, like
we can't start the meeting until the boss gets here,
something can't happen until another thing happens. First, the repairman
said that he can't finish this repair until the parts arrive.
Or we won't start this new marketing plan until the
boss tells us to do it. I remember when I
was a kid and there were presents under the Christmas tree.
My parents would tell us that we can't open them
until Christmas morning. Using until with a negative verb like
this tells us that we basically need to wait for
something in order to do another thing. And finally, for today,
and speaking of negative sentences, we have unless unless doesn't
talk about a time deadline like until and by. We
use unless to talk about a condition and a result.
The condition needs to happen and if it doesn't, well,
the result will not happen. Like I don't want to
buy a new phone unless it has a long battery life.
This means if the phone has a long battery life,
I'll buy it. Otherwise no way. Here's another example. I
won't go to the party unless you come with me.
Donna is very careful about how she spends money. She
said that she can't take a vacation unless she has
enough money saved up for it. That's smart. Keep in
mind the best way to remember English like this and
any other word or phrase in English, is to take
that word or phrase, write it in a sentence that's
true for you or true in your world, and then
memorize your sentences. Did you know You can get more
practice using your English when you join my podcast Learner's
Study Group. There you can make new friends, join us
for live group lessons every week where we practice these
podcasts lessons together. Plus you get access to the PDF
transcript and audio download for every Happy English podcast in
the past and in the future. And on top of that,
Each episode has exercises where you can practice this English
point with speaking and writing checked by me. To learn more,
just visit Myhappy English dot com and check out podcast
lesson eight hundred. Remember, learning another language is not easy,
but it's not impossible, and I'm here to help you
on your journey.
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