If I want to say, please send me the forecast until July next year. Can I replace "until" with "through" or "as of"? Thanks in advance.
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In your context, until means you want the forecast covering the period between now and next July (possibly including the month of July itself - that detail is ambiguous). Strictly speaking it's not syntactically valid to use through, but that would probably be understood as referring to just the single month of next July. And using as of would also be unusual / invalid, but might be understood as meaning starting from next July (for an unspecified length of time after that).– FumbleFingersOct 23, 2018 at 14:51
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@FumbleFingers Is "through" really not valid? To me that seems to be the best answer, actually conveying that the forecast should cover the time period up to and including July. Also, shouldn't your comment be an answer?– TashusOct 23, 2018 at 14:55
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...note that it makes a difference whether what you're asking for is a single forecast, or "regular" forecasts (for example, one every month from now until next July). Feasibly through could be considered "valid" for the "regular monthly updated forecasts" sense, but even then I'd expect through until.– FumbleFingersOct 23, 2018 at 14:55
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@FumbleFingers This may be a localization difference, as I see you are in the UK, but I cannot recall ever encountering "through until" in all of my (too) many years of education.– TashusOct 23, 2018 at 15:02
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1@Tashus: The problem with through here is that there's no obvious way to differentiate between an intended meaning of 1) from now until the start of July, 2) from now until the end of July, and 3) from the start of July to the end of July. Take a statement like I'll be working there through summer, for example. The most natural interpretation would be throughout summer (which I might say in January, months before I start work there). If I meant from now until (ambiguous whether summer is included or excluded) I'd normally have to say thru [un]till.– FumbleFingersOct 23, 2018 at 15:51
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2 Answers
Until: Continue this action up to the specified point, then stop. So, "please send me the forecast until July next year" will get you the forecasts up to June 30th next year, then they will stop.
Through: Continue this action up to the END of the specified point, then stop. "Please send me the forecast through July next year" will get you the forecasts up to July 31st next year, then they will stop.
As of: Begin this action at the specified point. "Please send me the forecast as of July next year" would probably get you a confused message, since it is normally used to refer to past data. For example, "What are our total sales as of March 15th?" would refer to sales data up to the point of March 15th of the current year, even if more data is available.
There are some alternatives to until in this context; "Up to" would be the closest. However, until is probably the correct word to use.
I would use "through", in the sense of definition 4 c in Merriam-Webster.
Please send me the forecast through July of next year.
If you use "until July" it sounds like you are asking the person to start sending the forecast now and to send it continuously, only stopping in July.
If you use "as of July" it sounds like you want a forecast that will be made in July, which doesn't really make sense.
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1It would probably be helpful not to use "until" in your description of what "until July" means. As written, it's a bit circular.– equesOct 23, 2018 at 14:56
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In a context where the OP is implicitly asking for "valid" usages, I don't think we should be endorsing plain through without until. Oct 23, 2018 at 14:58
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@FumbleFingers I also replied to your comment on the question, but I'm not sure to what you referring by "endorsing plain through without until." I wasn't even aware of that option/distinction.– TashusOct 23, 2018 at 15:03