Till in the correct word

Even though until is not a very long word, it has become common practice to shorten it by dropping the first syllable. This is the norm in every day spoken English, but it presents a challenge in writing.

The difficulty people face is determining whether or not  till is used as a contraction and therefore requires an apostrophe, i.e., ’til. However, only one of these spellings is correct.

What is the Difference Between Til and Till?

In this article, I will compare til vs. till. I will use the correct form in sentence examples, and, at the end, I will show you an easy trick to remember when to use each.

When to Use Til

What does til mean? Despite the popular misconception, neither ‘til nor til is the proper truncation of the preposition until.

Many writers attempt to use an apostrophe in front of ‘til, thinking it acts as a contraction, but to do so is incorrect. Till has no literary history as a contraction, so there is no need for an apostrophe (more on this below).

The acceptability of these spellings depends largely on whom you ask. Some dictionaries will list them as nonstandard variants; some won’t list them as words at all. Others will list them as acceptable, noting that the etymology is incorrect.

By and large, however, both spellings ’til and til are widely rejected in the writing community.

When to Use Till

What does till mean? Till is the properly truncated version of the preposition until, which means up to, and is used in anticipation of a future event.

Even though till is often considered less formal than until, it has been in use for several centuries, especially outside the United States, and is perfectly acceptable standard English.

In fact, till actually came before until. People think that till was just an afterthought and simply came by a shortening of until, but it is actually the earlier form. According to the OED, until appears to have been formed by adding the Old Norse und several hundred years after the first records of till.

So really till isn’t a shortened version of until. It’s really the other way around. Until is an elongated version of till.

Here are some examples of till in use:

• “Till death do us part,” vowed the bride and groom at their wedding.
• “I’m going to work in the yard till dinner is ready,” said Alex.
• His new study, which breaks down the forces propelling U.S. growth since 1947—the year the transistor was invented—and projects them forward to 2024, anticipates a boom in low-skilled work that rekindles economic growth to the tune of 2.49% a year from now till then, a little above the 2.34% experienced from 1990 to 2014. –The Wall Street Journal

Till can also be a noun or a verb. There are several senses of its noun form.

As a noun, till might refer to a register where cash is stored. It might also be an implement for farming. It could also be a synonym for stony dirt. Here is an example of each:

• Gregory took twenty dollars from the till at the supermarket.
• “I can’t work the fields because the till is broken,” the farmer told his wife.
• “Give me the seeds; I’ll plant the till myself,” his wife replied.

As a verb, it means to cultivate the earth. See the sentence below.

• “It is time to till the soil,” the boy said to his father.

As you can see, many uses of the word till relate to the ground. Till can refer to the earth, the action of preparing it for planting, or one of the tools used in this cultivation. The following two sentences are alike in meaning:

• Chelsea, please till the till with the till.
• Chelsea, please loosen the soil with the farm implement.

Trick to Remember the Difference

In your writing, you should not use til. It is widely shunned in all variations of English, and till is widely preferred by opinion and by common use.

As you can see in the above chart that graphs until vs. till vs. til in English usage, til barely even registers a blip over the last 200 years. While until and till are clearly visible on the graph, you can hardly make out the line for till.

Till is clearly the preferred spelling—and the only spelling in widespread use.

If you don’t think you can remember till vs. til, here is a helpful trick. Consider that till and will both end in ll, and till will always be correct. Til with only a single l is wrong every time.

Summary

Is it til or till? Til and till are two ways to shorten the preposition until. However, only till is correct. The above graph shows till to be preferred by at least 20 times, and Garner’s shows till to be preferred to the form ‘til by 73 times. Clearly, there is only one correct choice with these words.

If you need help remembering whether to use till or til, remember that till will always be correct. This trick takes the guesswork out of choosing til or till.

To summarize,

• Till is the correct spelling of the truncated preposition until.
• Til and ‘til are both incorrect.

If you feel like until has just too many letters or syllables, good news: you’ve got options. But should you use ’til or till? And what’s the difference, anyway?

By the end of this article, you’ll know the differences between until, till, and ’til, including in terms of origin, level of formality, and use.

’til vs. till

The word ’til is a shortening of until that, like many contractions, is typically reserved for informal contexts. It’s sometimes spelled without the apostrophe, especially in casual use. (Technically speaking, ’til is an example of the linguistic process known as aphesis, which involves the disappearance or loss of an unstressed initial vowel or syllable.)

Till is sometimes seen as a misspelling of ’til, but that’s not the case. It’s actually a separate word altogether with a variety of meanings, one of which means the same exact thing as ’til.

till or until

Till and until are completely interchangeable—they mean the same exact thing and can be used in all the same ways, including as a conjunction or preposition. They both have a very long history of use in English, but in fact till is even older than until: the first records of till come from before 900, with the first records of until coming in the 1100s. (Until and till are based on the same root.)

Even though they’re interchangeable, till may seem more informal than until to some people because it’s so similar to the shortening ’til. For this reason, some people avoid using till in formal contexts. Still, you can never really go wrong using till.

The occasional rendering of ’till with an apostrophe (certainly influenced by ’til) is generally considered a misspelling—and frankly unnecessary, since till is right there to use.

Examples of ’til, till, and until used in a sentence

Until, till, and ’til are interchangeable in meaning, but people often choose which one they use based on how formal they want to be. This means that ’til is typically being avoided in formal contexts, which sometimes leads to the avoidance of till as well. Still, in any of the examples below, any one of the terms could be used if formality were not a consideration.

• I thought it was a great offer until I realized there are no benefits attached.
• I stay up till midnight every so often, but rarely any later.
• The sign says “Open ’til midnight,” so we’ve still got time.

What is the difference between til and till?

If you’re looking for a shortened version of the word until, till and ‘til are viable options. However, there are several misconceptions about these terms–– starting with the fact that neither ‘til nor till is an abbreviation of “until.” 

Til and till are not abbreviations of until

According to The American Heritage Dictionary (AHD), the word till is older than “until” and it originated from Old Norse til for ‘to.’ The word “until” is a combination of the prefix un- (for ‘up to’) and ‘to,’ which stems from Old Norse und (‘as far as’ + ‘till’). 

The preposition “till” (two l’s) carried into Old English and became synonymous with “until,” although Middle English “til” (with one l) was obscure by the late 19th century. 

’til is not the older word, either

If you can believe it, the spelling of ‘til (single l with an apostrophe) didn’t enter the picture until the 20th century. Many people assume ‘til is the predated form of till and until, but this idea is quickly disproven by grammar experts.

According to Bryan Garner in Garner’s Modern English Usage, the word ‘til “has no literary history as a contraction,” and the assumption of such didn’t occur until the 1980s (Garner pp. 909–910). 

Additionally, Google Books Ngram Viewer shows that “till” has maintained popularity over “til” since the 16th century, whereas “until” surpassed their frequency in the three centuries later.

Which is correct: until, till, or ‘til?

The word “until” is the most common and formal word to use, while Modern English permits the shortened form of till for informal writing. But when it comes to til (with or without the apostrophe), English usage guides don’t share the same opinions. 

“If a form deserves a sic, it’s the incorrect ‘til,” writes Garner on the topic. However, AHD states that ‘til “is considered acceptable, though it is etymologically incorrect.” 

But if there’s one thing most dictionaries can agree on, it’s to avoid the use of ‘till (with two l’s and an apostrophe). “Abominable” and “nonstandard” are two ways our sources describe the misspelling of ‘till. Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary even goes as far as to call it “barbarism.” 

In summary, The Word Counter advises readers to stick with “until” for formal writing and reserve “till” for informal settings. Meanwhile, use ‘til or til cautiously and avoid ‘till altogether. 

Did you know?

TIL is an abbreviation that means ‘today I learned.” 

What does until mean

According to AHD, the preposition “until” means ‘up to the time of,’ ‘before,’ ‘unto,’ or simply ‘to’ (for Scots). For example,

• “We stayed in New York until spring.” 
• “She’s scheduled to work the cash register until noon.” 
• “He doesn’t receive phone notifications until 9 a.m.”
• “My calendar is booked until May.”

As a conjunction, “until” means ‘up to the time that,’ ‘before,’ or ‘to the point or extent that.’ For example, 

• “We talked until my roommate came home.” 
• “I’m not buying a house until I have money saved first.” 
• “I ran until my legs gave out.”
• “Until then, we suggest using a style guide on American English.” 
• “Hang tight until I have more information.” 

Synonyms

Afore, ahead of, before, ere, fore, of, previous to, prior to, till, to, up till, up to.

Antonyms

After, following, next, next to, since.

What does till mean?

The word till is an informal preposition and conjunction that means ‘until.’ For example, 

• “We stayed up till three in the morning.” 
• “…till death do us part.” 
• “I work from till five.” 
• “He watched the series till season five.” 
• “They worked on WordPress sites till the end of 2018.”

How to use till vs. til in a sentence?

Now that we understand the background and definitions of till and til, it’s time to peak at how these spellings exist in published writing. 

How to use till?

While “until” is the most formal word to use for published writing, the informal spelling of till is still common within news articles and creative platforms. For example,  

• “… the ban would go into effect starting from Wednesday and would last till January 5.” — AP News
• “Uneasy Under Coronavirus Lockdown, Pubs in England Count Days Till Christmas.” — The New York Times
• “Wait till you hear how he met his girlfriend.” — Los Angeles Times
• “Rains may continue in coastal Andhra Pradesh till Friday…” — The Weather Channel
• “As the pandemic rages on, we decided to extend it at least till the summer…” — Slate Magazine

How to use ’til or til?

As you might expect, the use of ‘til and til is relatively uncommon in published news articles. However, the chances of spotting these shakey terms increases within opinion pieces, headlines, or quoted material. For example, 

• “Hilary Duff jokes she’s ‘not brushing her hair’ til Christmas is over…” — Daily Mail
• “School’s out ‘til summer, Portland pauses Chromebook check-out…” — The Oregonian
• “‘We’d been shouting ‘til we were blue in the face that small-caps were getting left behind…’” — The Wall Street Journal

Additional reading: til or till

English grammar can be difficult, but The Word Counter is here to help. Check out our lessons on similar topics, such as: 

• Center vs. centre?
• Already vs. all ready?
• Favorite vs. favourite?
• Upmost vs. utmost?

Test Yourself!

Test how well you understand the difference between til and till with the following multiple-choice questions. 

1. True or false: Until and till are different words with the same meaning. 
   a. True
   b. False
2. True or false: We can use ‘til instead of “till” and “until” for formal writing. 
   a. True
   b. False
3. ‘Til became an alternate spelling of till in the _____________. 
   a. 12th century
   b. 16th century
   c. 20th century
   d. 21st century
4. The word until is a _____________.
   a. Preposition
   b. Prefix
   c. Conjunction
   d. A and C
5. The word ‘till is not a ____________.
   a. Conjunction
   b. Adverb
   c. Preposition
   d. Word
6. Which of the following is the least correct form of until?
   a. Till
   b. Til
   c. ‘Till
   d. ‘Til

Answers

1. A
2. B
3. C
4. D
5. D
6. C

Sources

1. Garner, B. “Till; until.” Garner’s Modern American Usage, 3rd ed., Oxford University Press, 2009, pp. 909–910. 
2. Harper, D. “Till (prep.).” Online Etymology Dictionary, Etymonline, 2020. 
3. “TIL.” Cambridge Dictionary, Cambridge University Press, 2020.
4. “‘Til.” The Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster Inc., 2020.
5. “Till.” The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th ed., Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 2020. 
6. “Till.” Lexico, Oxford University Press, 2020.
7. “Till.” The Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster Inc., 2020.
8. “Until.” The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th ed., Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 2020. 
9. “Until.” Lexico, Oxford University Press, 2020.

My roommate asked me how to spell the first word of Till death do us part (for reasons that I don’t fully recall, but it definitely wasn’t because we were starting some odd sort of relationship). We agreed there were three possibilities:

til, till, ’til

I quickly responded that ’til was the logical choice, a truncation of until, with the missing un marked by an apostrophe. Open-and-shut case. Except that it wasn’t. It kept gnawing at me. Had I seen people use till in that context? Why would they do that? So I made the same mistake I often do, and I looked into exactly what the deal was. First off, let’s look at some proponents of each form:

‘Tils:
‘Til Tuesday, Aimee Mann’s semi-pivotal 80s band
‘Til Death, Brad Garrett’s follow-up to Everybody Loves Raymond
Waiting ‘Til the Midnight Hour: A Narrative History of Black Power in America

Tills:
Till Death Us Do Part, British sitcom that paved the way for All in the Family
From Dusk Till Dawn, movie featuring Salma Hayek dancing and (so it is rumored) some other plot as well.

(Til is hard to find attestations of — people seem to be pretty good at remembering to put apostrophes at the words when the first syllable is removed.) So why would anyone spell it till if it’s coming from until? Well, it turns out that till isn’t derived from until.  Till and ’til are actually two different words with two different etymologies. Till is the earlier form, attested as early as 1330; Until is actually derived from till, not the other way around as in ’til (a backformation which showed up much later).  Both are common, so it’s up to you which one you like.  Till is commoner in Scotland, where it can be used like dative to in some situations, while ’til is commoner in the U.S.  Take your pick.