I have not noticed this construct until now. All what I was taught in ELL books was related to the moment now but not as a verb in the simple present form.
I understand that "until" seems to be used as follows:
present perfect + until + present simple
I have given some examples of this below. My questions are:
- is my understanding of this construction correct?
- is this a common construction? Does it apply to other words besides "until"?
In recent years, Metro officials have been conservative in improving
bus services. For example, before scheduling evening bus runs, they
have waited until demand surges for the latest bus on that route.
Title: Ambitious Metro plan seeks to ride new wave; Project targets once and future passengers. Author: JAMES ROBINSON; Staff. Source: Houston Chronicle
Influenced by Iris Murdoch's claim that choices are what you do when
everything else has been lost, I became increasingly convinced that
what we do is not what destroys us. Rather, our fate rests on how we
describe what we do. Indeed, we do not know what we have done
until we get the descriptions right.
Title: Learning from others. Author: Stanley Hauerwas. Source: Christian Century
Film, meanwhile, is single-use. You make a permanent image on the film
once you expose it. If you want to take more pictures, you carry more
film. And you don't know for sure what you have shot until after
the film is processed. With digital cameras, images can be
displayed on a tiny screen. Don't like one? Erase it and shoot again.
Title: Picture perfect. Author: Jay Dickman. Source: Boys Life
Best Answer
1: Is my understanding of this construction correct?
Yes, but it's slightly more general than that. The tense used on both sides depends on whether that event has happened. For before the until, the tense is used as normal. For after the tense is past if it has happened and present if it has not.
Example 1: try to think of the author as writing from the point of view where the officials are waiting for a surge. They have already been waiting for one, but one has not happened yet. Hence, perfect + until + present.
Example 2: the person has already done something they're unaware of but don't yet have the descriptions right. Hence, perfect + until + present.
Example 3: they have shot ** but **have yet to process. Hence, perfect + until + present.
An extra example: 'I will wait until he arrives'. The person has not started waiting and he has not arrived.
An extra extra example: 'I'd waited until he arrived'. The person has already waited and he has already arrived.
2. Is this a common construction? Does it apply to other words besides "until"?
Until is a common word in English, and it's almost always used in this fashion. It's an action that ends upon a condition, where the action is before the 'until' and the condition is after the 'until'.
No words that act in the same way come to mind, so I can't answer that question. I can show you the word since though.
We've been gazing at the stars since he arrived: this is basically the opposite of 'until'. This defines an action that has started after a condition is met, instead of stopping. The tenses work almost exactly the same way.
To avoid confusion: