Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[Chan-Seung Lee]

[Bob S.]

2
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"It is impossible to speak in such a way that you cannot be misunderstood." -- Karl Popper

[redset]

Just to give you some help with the phrases:

By next week means that something will be done or completed before next week. Next week is the deadline for the action.

Until next week is used to talk about a situation or a state that ends next week ("I'm on vacation until Tuesday"). Until tells you what's happening right now, and when it will change. Passing an exam is an event or an action, so we wouldn't use until.

To next week is unusual. I think it's most commonly used with from ("The store will be closed from 1 o'clock to 2 o'clock"), but it has the same meaning as [i]until and I think most people would use that instead: "The store will be closed from 1 o'clock until 2 o'clock". People might use [i]to when talking about many periods of time, such as "you have a doctor's appointment at noon, then it's lunch from 1 o'clock to 2 o'clock, then we have a meeting from 2 to 4 o'clock..."

Up to is usually used with a length of time (like an hour) instead of a specific moment in time (tomorrow morning). "Every evening I watch TV for an hour" means that you watch television for a full hour, no more and no less. "I watch TV for up to an hour" means that you might watch for less than an hour - an hour is the most you will watch.

No definite article! When you're talking about a time in the future (a few days from now) you just say next week, not the next week.