Indtil

Indtil is a Danish preposition and conjunction meaning “until” or “up to.” It marks the end point of a period or the upper limit of a range and is used with time expressions to indicate when something ends or holds true up to a moment. For example, indtil klokken fem means “until five o’clock,” and åbningen varer indtil fredag means “the opening lasts until Friday.” It can also introduce subordinate clauses, as in Indtil han kommer, venter vi (“Until he comes, we’ll wait”).

In Danish, indtil is often preferred when the emphasis is on the end point as a limit, while til is used for ranges in a broader sense. A common fixed phrase is indtil videre, meaning “for now” or “up to now.” The combination of indtil with other time expressions makes it a versatile tool for expressing endpoints, deadlines, or ongoing states up to a moment.

Etymology and related forms: indtil is a compound built from elements meaning inward toward an endpoint, and its closest cognate in Norwegian is inntil, with the same core meaning. The two languages share a related semantic field, though spelling and usage can differ.

See also: inntil (Norwegian cognate), til (a general preposition for “to” or “toward”), till (analogous term in English and other Germanic languages). Indtil is primarily Danish, with its Norwegian counterpart inntil serving a closely related function.