As a native speaker of German, I have the habit of negating every sentence with the word 'until' or 'before' and every time I do that, my fiancee, who is American, calls me out. It sounds right to my German ears, but I can't explain why, though. She tried to give me some examples as to why it doesn't make sense in English, but I couldn't understand it. I hope someone in this forum can enlighten me.
Let's look at these sentences:
You can't buy the car until you do not have the money from the bank.
You should not change lanes before you do not see the car in the rearview mirror
Both sound natural to my German ears because it is something I would also say in German. However, my fiancee always gives me a confused look when I say sentences like the above. She says it should be like this:
You can not buy the car until you have the money from the bank.
You should not change lanes before you see the car in the review mirror
It sounds so off to me.The word 'until' suggests duration for me, as in 'from – to'. You can't do something from moment x to moment y, and y being the 'interruption' of that duration. That is, you can not buy the car as long as you do not have the money. I apply the same logic to the word 'before'. You should not change lanes as long as you do not see the car driving next to you in the rearview mirror.
Best Answer
"Until" is an indicator of a changing state.
"You can't buy the car" indicates the current state.
"Until" indicates that the next statement will define the condition under which that state will change.
"You have the money in the bank".
"Before" is similar. It describes a state that is terminated by a certain event. You can only change lanes when a certain condition is met; prior to that condition, you cannot change lanes. 'Before' indicates an earlier time.
I think the English word you're looking for would be "while". 'While' indicates an ongoing duration; 'Until' indicates the termination of that duration. "You cannot buy the car while you do not have the money in the bank" - during the time that you do not have money in the bank, you cannot buy the car. "You cannot change lines while you do not see the car in the mirror" - during the time that you cannot see the car in the mirror, you cannot change lanes.