jusquà

Jusqu’à is a French preposition meaning “until” or “up to.” It marks the limit of time, space, or quantity in relation to another element in a sentence, and it connects a reference point to what follows, such as jusqu’à demain (until tomorrow), jusqu’au pont (up to the bridge), or jusqu’à 100 personnes (up to 100 people).

Orthography and forms are notably varied. The standard written form is jusqu’à, used before the preposition à and many following words. When the following noun is masculine singular with the definite article le, the form contracts to jusqu’au. Before a plural noun with the definite article les, the form is jusqu’aux. Before a feminine noun or other cases not starting with the sequence le/les, it is jusqu’à la, jusqu’à la fin, etc. There are also fixed adverbial phrases such as jusqu’ici (so far) and jusqu’alors. The form jusques exists mainly in literary or regional usage and is uncommon in modern standard French.

Grammatical note: When jusqu’à introduces a subordinate clause with ce que or que, the verb in that clause is typically in the subjunctive: Elle restera jusqu’à ce que tout soit prêt. The construction jusqu’à ce que is a standard way to express “until … happens.”

Etymology and usage context: The expression derives from the Latin usque ad, with successive phonetic and orthographic developments in French. In comparison, English commonly uses until or up to; other Romance languages have parallel forms such as hasta or até. In everyday written and spoken French, jusqu’à is the most common and flexible form for indicating a terminal point.