まで
- 1Until: marks the end point in time of a continuing action or state.Ex. 1
- 2As far as, to: marks the destination or end point in space.Ex. 2
- 3Even: marks something as an extreme case included in a group (e.g. 子供まで知っている).
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Neutral in register and very common in everyday speech and writing, especially for schedules, opening hours, travel, and distances. It often pairs with から to give a full range from start to finish. Unlike までに, which sets a deadline for a single action, まで means the action or state continues right up to that point.
Do not use まで for deadlines; use までに for actions completed by a certain time (金曜日までに出す).
Note that with まで the action or state continues throughout the whole period until the end point.
Note that まで marks only the end point; the starting point is marked with から.
- までにN4「までに」relates only to the time-endpoint sense of「まで」:「まで」says the action continues until that moment, while「までに」means completing it no later than then, e.g.「金曜日までに提出する」. They attach the same way but cannot be swapped.
- 〜から〜までN5「〜から〜まで」pairs「から」with「まで」to mark both a starting point and an ending point, delimiting ranges of time, space, people, things, or quantity. Use plain「まで」when marking only an endpoint, attaching to verbs, or expressing 'even'.
- に至るまでN1「に至るまで」is close to the 'even'-type usage of「まで」and the range-marking use of「AからBまで」, but it is formal written style emphasizing breadth down to the smallest details, typically followed by all-encompassing statements like「すべて」. In everyday speech just use「まで」.
- までもないN1Although「までもない」also attaches to the verb dictionary form, it is a fixed construction meaning there's no need to go so far as doing something ('no need to...'), different from「まで」's senses of endpoint, limit, or 'even', so they cannot replace each other.
- までだN1「までだ」appears sentence-finally: with the dictionary form it means 'worst case, we'll simply...', and with the ta-form it means 'it merely amounts to...'. Since「まで」is a particle marking temporal/spatial endpoints or 'even', the two cannot be interchanged.
までに sets a deadline by which something is done, while まで marks how long something continues; 〜から〜まで simply combines a start and end point into a range. The advanced patterns are different: に至るまで is a formal, emphatic "all the way down to"; までもない means "there is no need to even"; and までだ means "all one can do is" or "that is all."
