Know Your English (Dec 2001)-4

Know your English

Is it Ok to say,``Could you drop me till there?''

The words ``till'' and ``until'' are normally used when you are talking about duration. For example, we can say:

*I waited till all the students had left the building.

*Meera kept hitting the tennis ball till she was ready to drop.

*The students were supposed to study until 10 o'clock.

"Till'' and ``until'' cannot be used to refer to a place. The sentence that you have given is grammatically incorrect. To make it acceptable, you will have to drop ``till''— ``Could you drop me there?'' Here are a few more examples.

*Could you drop me at the airport?

*Could you drop me off at school?

*Could you wait till/until tomorrow?

Source:

The Hindu daily, Tuesday, Dec 18, 2001