Till vs. Until

[Harsh Chowdhary]

hi Torsten,

Actually in sms language we often use to write 'thanks' as 'thanx'.I m more habituated to sms language.I promise I will change my habbit of writting in sms language.secondly,i thought that 'arised' is past participle form of 'arise'.Now i have checked in dictionary and got to know that it would be 'has arisen'.Thirdly, in 'could u' i have written 'you' as 'u'.Sorry for that once again.But Torsten i don't make out why 'explain me' is wrong???..

[Torsten]

In English, we say 'can you please explain' or 'can you please explain to me'. We don't say 'explain me'. As for 'sms language' it doesn't exist. There is only the English language and in English we capitalize the personal pronoun 'i'. We also separate each sentence by a space. It doesn't matter whether you use English in an SMS, on a forum, in an email or a letter of application. The basic rules of the language always apply. There are lots of people who have developed the habit of ignoring basic rules because they think it's cool. As a matter of fact, it's not cool at all. It's just sloppy.

TOEFL listening lectures: A lecture from a life sciences class (4)

[Harsh Chowdhary]

Yes, I agree with you. It's really not cool at all. I follow you. Thank you very much for pointing out my mistakes.

[Ammar Al Husari]

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hello everybody,
i'd like to know what is the difference between till and until ?? what is the perfect use for both of them ..

[Mister Micawber]

'Till' is informal.
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Native English teacher at Mister Micawber's

[Ammar Al Husari]

then do we have to use "until" all the time !!?

[Mister Micawber]

No, of course not-- just in formal writing, like business letters or essays.
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Native English teacher at Mister Micawber's

[Ammar Al Husari]

ok Mr. Mister Micawber ,, thanks alot ,, but would you please send me a recorded message just to let me know how to pronounce your name :) ,, thanks again

[Mister Micawber]

Sorry, no mike. /mi 'kaw ber/.
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Native English teacher at Mister Micawber's

[Ammar Al Husari]

thanks Mr. Micawber ,, you were really helpful ,it would be great to have a teacher just like you :)

[Mister Micawber]

Thanks. And your English sounds pretty fluent on your MP3.
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Native English teacher at Mister Micawber's

[Ammar Al Husari]

yea thanks ,, i am trying to do the best i could :)

[Antonella25]

Hello!
One word don't go with the verb in bold:The bill /meal /bank account came to 35$.
At the answer key it is said that 'the bank account' is the word that don't go with the verb;Why? I really don't see why. Could you give me a reason?
Thank you!

[Beeesneees]

A bank account doesn't 'come to' a figure because 'come to' here indicates that you have totalled the cost of items to find a final amount which then has to be paid.

Bank accounts don't work on this principle.
The bill came to - the total cost of items on the bill was...
The meal came to - the total cost of the items ordered from the menu was...
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Cheers m' dears!