Unless means the same as if…not. Like if, unless is followed by a present tense, a past tense, or a past perfect tense (never by a conditional). Unless is used instead of if…not in conditional sentences of all types. The order of the clauses doesn’t matter with sentences using unless.

conjunction

A compound sentence has two or more independent clauses connected by a coordinating conjunction. Common examples of subordinating conjunctions are: as, when, while, because, since, after, before, although, though, if, whether, unless and until.

Unless is a conditional word (like if), so we don’t use will or would in the subordinate clause: Unless I hear from you, I’ll see you at two o’clock. See also: If.

Subordinating conjunctions

The easiest way to explain “unless” is to say it is the equivalent of a negative if-clause. If I do NOT win the lottery, I will not be able to buy a car. Unless I win the lottery, I will not be able to buy a car. This explanation is a good introduction to unless-clauses, but it is not the whole story.

1. [S] [T] Don’t move unless I tell you. (
2. [S] [T] He never speaks unless spoken to. (
3. [S] [T] You’ll never know unless you try. (
4. [S] [T] He did not speak unless spoken to. (
5. [S] [T] I won’t go, unless the rain stops. (
6. [S] [T] Tom never speaks unless spoken to. (
7. [S] [T] Don’t speak unless you’re spoken to. (

Unless means except if or simply it means if…not. Both of these examples have the same meaning and refer to the present time. “You can’t go on vacation unless you save some money.” “If you don’t save some money, you can’t go on vacation.”

Use unless with present tenses when talking about the future.

1. Present. You will damage your health unless you stop smoking. = you will damage your health if you do not stop smoking.
2. Past. Unless she was working late, she would be here.
3. Past Perfect. I wouldn’t have taken Paul unless his car hadn’t broken down.

Complex Sentences with “unless” A complex sentence with “unless” contains at least one independent clause and at least one dependent clause. Dependent clauses can refer to the subject (who, which) the sequence/time (since, while), or the causal elements (because, if) of the independent clause.

The word “unless” can serve as a connector, as in Model Sentence 1, or it can come at the beginning, as in Model Sentence 2. “Unless” must go directly with the condition. If the condition and “unless” are separated, it sounds quite strange.

Key Differences Between Unless and Until Unless is just a conjunction, which joins two sentences. Unless is used in the sentences to introduce a precondition, in which the given event is possible. Conversely, until is used to emphasize the time that occurs before the happening of the event.

Anil: Can we use until and unless together in a sentence? E.g. ‘You will not succeed until and unless you work hard’. Fatima: Grammar books say that when using if-clauses, unless can be used with past simple or present perfect.

Comparison chart

I’ll stay here until you come back. We have to wait until he arrives. When we use a negative construction (with not) in the main clause, until means ‘not before’. We sometimes use the constructions have + past participle and had + past participle with until.

from English Grammar Today. Until is a preposition and a conjunction. Until is often shortened to till or ’til. Till and ’til are more informal and we don’t usually use them in formal writing.

An online dictionary (7) defines “until” as a preposition or conjunction that means primarily two things: “up to the time of” and “before (a specified time).” It gives examples such as “We danced until dawn” and “She can’t leave until Friday.” In the dancing sentence, the people stopped dancing when the sun began to …

Prescriptive spelling rules usually insist that until and till are correct, untill and til or ’til are wrong. A quick check on Google shows that until spellings outnumber untill spellings by about 100 to 1, till spellings outnumber til spellings by 1.2 to 1 and until outnumbers till by 2 to 1.

Until, till, and ’til are all used in modern English to denote when something will happen. Until and till are both standard, but what might be surprising is that till is the older word. ‘Til, with one L, is an informal and poetic shortening of until. The form ’till, with an additional L, is rarely if ever used today.

Synonyms & Near Synonyms for until. till, up till, up to.

Until, Till, or ‘Til

1. Until indicates when something will happen, begin, or end.
2. Till means the same thing as until.
3. Till is not an abbreviation of until—it’s actually older than until—and it should not be written with an apostrophe.

Obsolete spelling of until.

Definition of “intil” [intil] Into; in. Unto.

intransitive verb. 1a : to move or shift so as to lean or incline : slant. b : to incline, tend, or become drawn toward an opinion, course of action, or one side of a controversy. 2a : to engage in a combat with lances : joust. b : to make an impetuous attack tilt at social evils.

Tilt Synonyms – WordHippo Thesaurus….What is another word for tilt?

to mislead by a display of strength, self-confidence, or the like: He bluffed me into believing that he was a doctor. to gain by bluffing: He bluffed his way into the job. Poker. to deceive by a show of confidence in the strength of one’s cards.

Tilt sentence example. It was Darkyn’s turn to tilt his head curiously. He reached out to tilt her chin to the side to see her neck. The falls of Fender, near the old bridge of Tilt , are eclipsed by the falls of Bruar, 4 m.

Senior Member. The English defined it as a wagon with a tilt, tilt being “a canvas awning or cover.” We Americans just covered our wagons and gave them the plain descriptive name covered wagon.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Tilt originated as a poker term for a state of mental or emotional confusion or frustration in which a player adopts a less than optimal strategy, usually resulting in the player becoming over-aggressive. Tilting is closely associated with another poker term, “steam”.

Tilted or tending to tilt.