This week on Ask a Teacher, we answer a question from Abrahan Ferrer, who is in Spain.

本周《名师问答》节目，我们回答来自西班牙的亚伯拉罕·费雷尔的问题。

Hello there, I am writing to you because I am quite confused with these three options here: up to, until and till.

你好，我给你写信是因为我对up to、until和till这三个词汇的用法非常困惑。

I don't know how to use it properly.

我不知道怎么恰当地使用它们。

Could you explain these words to us, please?

你能给我们解释下这几个单词吗？

Thank you very much for your support in teaching us English.

非常感谢你在教授我们英语学习过程中提供的支持。

Keep it up!

继续加油！

Dear Abrahan, Thank you for your message!

亲爱的亚伯拉罕，感谢你的来信！

Let's start with "until," and "till."

我们先从“until”和“till”开始讲吧。

They can be used as prepositions to describe time.

它们可以被用作描述时间的介词。

The structure in this case is preposition + period of time.

这种情况下的结构是介词+时间。

Here is a simple example sentence:

下面是一个简单的例子：

Until yesterday, John did not realize that until and till had the same meaning.

直到昨天，约翰才意识到until和till意思是一样的。

And also: Till yesterday, John did not realize that until and till had the same meaning.

还有：直到昨天，约翰才意识到until和till意思是一样的。

Until is used to show the time when a situation, activity, or period ends, as in:

until是用来表明一种情况、活动或者阶段结束了，比如：

"I was up studying until 3 in the morning.

“我一直学习到凌晨3点。

I am so tired!"

我太累了！”

"Until" is also often used with deadlines – a time by which you must complete something.

“until”经常和截止日期一起出现-也就是你必须完成一件事的时间。

At work, your boss might give you a deadline.

在工作中，你的老板可能给你设置一个截止日期。

The boss may say:

老板可能说：

You have until Friday to finish the report.

你必须在周五前完成这份报告。

"Till" can be used in place of "until" in most sentences.

大部分句子里“till”可以替换“until”。

Here is one such example:

下面是一个这样的例子：

I can't wait till next week.

我等不到下周了。

I will finally get to see all my friends at school again!

我终于要在学校再见到我所有的朋友了！

"Up to" is a bit more difficult to describe.

“up to”描述起来更复杂一些。

It can act as a preposition or play a part in a phrasal verb or phrasal expression.

它可以用作介词或者组成动词词组和短语。

But here are a few very general ideas.

但是下面是一些up to的一般用法。

"Up to" can be used to show the place or level that is reached by something, as in:

“up to”可以用来表示某些东西达到的位置或者高度，比如：

The mud was up to our knees!

泥浆深到我们膝盖的位置！

“Up to” can also mean as many or as much as a given number or amount.

“up to”也可以表示尽可能多的给定的数字或者数量。

For example, imagine a person buys a very large car.

例如：设想一个人买了一辆非常大的车。

The person might say:

这个人可能会说：

My car holds up to 12 people!

我的车最多容纳12个人！

Here is another example.

下面是另外一个例子。

Imagine you have just taken a major exam.

假设你刚刚参加完一场专业考试。

You really want to know your results.

你非常想知道成绩。

But you have to wait.

但是你得等待。

A worker at the testing center tells you:

考试中心的工作人员告诉你：

You will have to wait up to three days for your test results.

最多等3天你就会看到考试成绩。

The worker might also tell you this:

他也可能跟你说：

You will have to wait until Monday for your test results.

你得等到周一才能看到考试成绩。

Notice that the worker uses "until" in this case because Monday is a time, not a number or amount.

注意工作人员在这种情况下用了“until”，因为周一是时间，而不是数字或者数量。

Of course, "up to" has many other meanings.

当然了，“up to”还有其他多种意思。

But we can talk about those some other time!

但是我们可以其他时间再继续讨论。

Well, Abrahan, we hope this helps to answer your question.

好了，亚伯拉罕，我们希望这些能帮助回答你的问题。

And to our listeners everywhere, what question do you have about American English?

全世界各地的听众，关于美式英语你们还有什么问题呢？

Send us an email at learningenglish@voanews.com.

可以发邮件到我们的邮箱learningenglish@voanews.com。

And that's Ask a Teacher!

以上就是《名师问答》的内容。

I'm Armen Kassabian.

阿门·卡萨比恩为您报道。

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