The Weltchek Weekly

No, I’m not going anywhere. I simply wanted to show you a correct use of the word until, which can always be shortened to till, but not to ’till or til, neither of which is considered correct. Type til in Word and a red squiggly mark will let you know you’ve misspelled the word.

Imagine my dismay when I walked past a neighborhood Lululemon the other day and saw the company’s tagline—printed in bright white letters across the store’s black awning—“Fake it til you make it.”

What’s with the til? Does the company think a three-letter word looks hipper than one with four? Will I “make it” faster if I have fewer letters to read?

So while til seems to be creeping into our lives, most usage experts advise against it. Bryan Garner, author of Garner’s Modern American Usage, says this about til: “widely shunned.”

Hear! Hear!

Until—or till—the next time.

The expression “hear, hear” is often mistakenly replaced by “here, here.” Read this bulletin for a full explanation of “hear, hear.”