Doesn’t まで just mean “Until”? Think Again!

[00:00:03]It's 9:10 p.m. and you are chatting with your Japanese friend. He starts telling you about a fascinating cafe nearby. A place that sells almost everything.

[00:00:18]It's a cafe, but it also sells toys.

[00:00:24]Oh, toys. That's great. You love toys.

[00:00:34]until 9. Oh, so these things are available until 900 p.m.

[00:00:42]Oh, so it's too late today. Suddenly, an awkward silence fills the air. Your friend gives you a polite smile, but something feels off. He's not quite sure where the misunderstanding happened and he doesn't want to correct you to make you feel embarrassed.

[00:01:00]So what went wrong? The problem wasn't the word kooji. The problem was what your brain did with m. You probably learned that m means until, right? But here's a surprise. M doesn't always mean until.

[00:01:18]Sometimes it means something completely different. and misunderstanding this tiny word can completely change the meaning of a conversation. So, let's uncover the real meaning of m. You probably understand a sentence like this.

[00:01:35]The bank is open until 4 p.m. In this sentence, marks the end point of time. Here's another example you're probably familiar with.

[00:01:48]I ran to the gym. This time, m marks the destination, the end point in space. In both cases, m basically means until or up to and points to some kind of end point. But here's where things get interesting. Take a look at this sentence.

[00:02:14]famous means to get completely lose oneself in an activity. So what do you think this sentence means? It means even adults lose themselves in playing this game. So if m is not showing an end point here, what is it doing? The key idea is this.

[00:02:34]Made pushes our attention beyond a boundary in this sentence. Made isn't marking a destination or a point in time. Instead, it's emphasizing just how appealing this game is. It's like saying not only kids, but even adults. The speaker is emphasizing how surprisingly appealing this game is. Here's another example.

[00:03:04]It was so delicious that I even ended up licking the sauce off the plate. I'm sure you experienced it, too. the sauce was just too good to waste. In this sentence, what is emphasized is the deliciousness of the food. In other words, m highlights something that goes beyond what we normally expect and you can think of it as a flavor of the English word even. It's like saying even adults or I even licked it. But wait, there are more ways you can use m. Let's take a look.

[00:03:46]This dinner set looks quite impressive, doesn't it? So, what do you think this sentence means? It means the dinner set even comes with wine and dessert. Now, you might be thinking, wait, is M showing emphasis here, too? That's a great question. Manet in this example highlights something that is added beyond what you might normally expect.

[00:04:10]The flavor is slightly different. In the previous examples, the focus was on something reaching an unexpected degree.

[00:04:19]Here, the focus is on something unexpected being added to the list. Wine and dessert are simply additional items included in a set. It's a slightly different flavor of emphasis. Let's look at some more examples.

[00:04:40]I went to buy vegetables, but I ended up buying snacks, too. If you've ever been to a Japanese supermarket, you know exactly how this happens. You go in with a simple shopping list, and before you know it, your basket is full of tempting snacks.

[00:05:00]I met him for the first time, but he even knew my telephone number. Now, that's a little creepy. So far, we've seen m used for emphasis and addition.

[00:05:13]In general, this usage is mostly limited to affirmative sentences. It normally doesn't appear in suggestions, requests, or guesses. Negative sentences are also uncommon, but there is an interesting exception.

[00:05:31]When the power went out, even my flashlight didn't work. Why does m work here?

[00:05:39]Because we are adding another negative element to an already negative situation. The power outage is bad enough. Nothing in the house works. Then to make matters worse, even the flashlight, which is supposed to help in an emergency, didn't work. The flashlight is added as an extra piece of bad news and that's why sounds natural in this sentence. Now let's look at even more surprising use of m next.

[00:06:13]What does this mean? It means my favorite celebrity even appeared in my dream. This is another flavor of the same idea going beyond what we normally expect. Here the boundary is pushed a lot further away from our normal expectation.

[00:06:31]Imagine that you are completely obsessed with your favorite celebrity. You think about her all day long. Then she even appears in your dreams. That's a bit too much obsession.

[00:06:42]You may have also noticed that the expression is not m but m. When m is used with a flavor of even, it's often attached directly to a noun, but it can also follow a particle such as ni in this example. Some particles are more likely to be used before m, but others are unlikely to appear. In some cases, it can even follow the t form of a verb or attached to the stem of a mass form verb. Let's look at some more real life examples.

[00:07:18]Here are some interesting examples.

[00:07:25]I studied throughout the night, but I failed a test. In this sentence, highlights an extreme action, studying all day long. Notice that M is attached to the T form.

[00:07:41]Let's look at another example.

[00:07:47]I think you don't need to go as far as letting her stay overnight.

[00:07:53]Here, m marks the action of letting someone stay overnight as the extreme point. On its own, offering someone a place to stay may not seem particularly extraordinary. However, in context, the speaker may feel that they have already done enough for this person and providing accommodation would be going a step too far. You will also notice something different here. M is attached to the mass form stem of toas giving us to m. In reality though, m is most often attached to a noun or noun followed by a particle. That's where you will encounter this pattern most frequently in everyday Japanese. So far, we've seen three different flavors of ming even. It can emphasize a high degree, add something unexpected to a list, or show that something goes beyond what we normally expect. Next, let's look at some cases where m doesn't work.

[00:09:00]I can cut this by hand. Now, what if you want to say I can even cut this by hand?

[00:09:07]Could we simply add and say?

[00:09:13]Unfortunately, no. This doesn't work.

[00:09:17]Why not? Because the particle doesn't usually go with.

[00:09:23]So, then what about this?

[00:09:28]Well, this sentence is grammatically correct, but it doesn't mean what you want it to mean. Instead, it means this can even cut a hand. That's not the message you were going for, and you might end up scaring people instead. So, how can we express the idea that something is so easy to cut that you can even do it by hand? One option is you can also cut this by hand. Here can add emphasis giving the nuance of even by hand.

[00:10:05]You can also say my little brother didn't say thank you.

[00:10:17]Now, how would you say my little brother didn't even say thank you in Japanese?

[00:10:26]Sounds possible, right? But this sentence is actually incorrect.

[00:10:31]Why? In ordinary negative statements, Japanese usually prefers other expressions rather than m. So, how can we say it in this situation?

[00:10:43]You can use My little brother didn't even say thank you. Or you can use you can also use.

[00:11:05]So far we've looked at several uses of that correspond to the English word even. Now let's return to another important idea.

[00:11:15]as an end point.

[00:11:18]What do you think this means?

[00:11:25]This sentence means Lisa practices dancing until she's about to faint. When follows the dictionary form of a verb, it can indicate the end point of a scale or degree. In this example, to be about to faint represents the extreme result or limit of the dance practice. The sentence emphasizes that Lisa practices dancing to the point where she's nearly fainting.

[00:11:54]Let's look at some more examples.

[00:12:00]I run until my legs hurt. Here m marks the end point. The action of running continued up to the point where my legs started hurting. That's the limit. The point where I couldn't keep running comfortably anymore.

[00:12:19]I can't go home until the meeting ends.

[00:12:22]Sounds like I'm stuck here for a while.

[00:12:25]Hopefully, the meeting wraps up soon.

[00:12:28]Now, you learned all different ways to use m. Let's go back to the scenario from the beginning and take a closer look at where the misunderstanding happened.

[00:12:39]So, your friend said, "It's a cafe, but it also sells toys."

[00:12:48]Then he added, "Maybe you can confirm with him."

[00:13:00]Oh, sorry. lottery tickets.

[00:13:03]Ah, he's talking about lottery tickets.

[00:13:08]In this sentence, m is used as an additional item sold at the cafe. Your friend is surprised by how many different things this cafe sells. And lottery tickets are one more unexpected item on the list. Now you can confidently respond.

[00:13:27]Let's go.

[00:13:29]No awkward smile, no confusion at 9:00, just excitement as your friend takes you to the cafe that seems to sell everything.

[00:13:38]Now, let's summarize the different ways we've learned to use m.

[00:13:44]We learned that mad has two main functions. First, it describes an endpoint and second, it pushes the boundary. It can express emphasis on the degree of something, the addition of items to a list and extreme situations.

[00:14:00]We already know the basic usage. M follows a time expression or destination and marks the end point in time or space. You also know that m can mark the end point of a range. For example, I went to the same school from elementary school all the way through high school. But doesn't stop there. It can also indicate the highest point of a scale or degree when used with a dictionary form verb.

[00:14:34]Please explain until I understand. And then we explored one of the trickiest parts of m. It corresponds to a few different flavors of the English word even.

[00:14:47]In all of those even flavors, the basic idea is the same. Made highlights something that goes beyond a normal boundary. The boundary might be a degree, a range of items or our expectations.

[00:15:02]M is most commonly attached to a noun.

[00:15:05]Although some particles may appear between the noun and m, it can also follow a verb in the t form or the mas form stem. There are a couple of important things to remember. In general, these even flavors of m do not work in negative sentences. And although some particles can come before m, the particle the does not go with m in most cases.

[00:15:33]Think of m as a word with two faces. One face marks an end point while the other pushes a boundary adding surprise, emphasis or an unexpected extra element.

[00:15:48]Don't forget to like this video and subscribe and turn on notifications so you never miss my new videos. You can also join my daily quizzes in the post section. Check out my Udemy courses for Japanese learning as well. Links are in the description below. Thank you for watching.