Today I saw this phrase "until later" and am almost confused now.
A person says "I'm supposed to start on a new department, but not until later today"
In this context, "not until later date" indicates "after date" I think.
Then I'm wondering. How do you make a choice among later, until later and not until later?
ex:I want to buy this but (later/until later/not until later)
I can't tell which sound natural and which sound weird.
Best Answer
"Not until later" is generally preferred over "later" in clauses that are contrastive. Since your example sentence at the end has a clause starting with but, you're introducing contrast and so should use "not until later."
Your first sentence could alternatively be phrased, "I'm supposed to start on a new department later today." But by changing the last part to a contrastive clause, the speaker is emphasizing that there is a period of time before they will actually start.
"Until later", without not, is not contrastive. It simply specifies a period of time when some action will stop or change. For example, "I'm waiting until later to talk to her" says that I'm currently waiting, but at some point soon I will stop waiting and talk to her.