[论文写作-词汇] up to now 和 up until now

Do the phrases "up to now" and "up until now" mean the same?

 

首先要说的是 up until now 的说法有些冗余，应该说 until now 就可以了。

 

然后看三个例子：

1. Up until now, no birds have perched on that flagpole.

2. Until now, no birds have perched on that flagpole.

3. Up to now, no birds have perched on that flagpole.

句子 1 和 2 中的 until 强烈地表明，之前没有一些鸟类最近一直栖息在旗杆上，而直到现在，可能出现在那里了。（It seems to me that the force of until in sentences 1. and 2. strongly suggests that some birds have been perching on the flagpole recently, and may even still be there.）

句子 3 表明在整个观察期间，包括现在，没有鸟栖息在旗杆上。（On the other hand 3. suggests that no birds have perched on the flagpole during the whole time it has been observed, including the present moment.）

 

所以，当论文中描述一个研究尚未进行时，可以用 Up to now，而不是 Up until now。

另外一种解释：

Up to - used for various points and measures to describe a certain segment.

意思是说 up to 表示的是某个范围，可以时间（包括现在哦），也可以是其它度量。例如：

E.g. fill the container up to 500 ml mark

Until/till - used to describe a lapse of time before a certain point in time

意思是说 Until 用来描述在某一时间点之前的一段时间（不包括现在哦）。例如：

E.g. we waited until sunset - i.e. waiting is the lapse between now and sunset.

我们一直等到日落；之后就不等了。