“how long til” is a casual, slightly shortened way of saying “how long until,” and people use it to ask how much time remains before something happens.

Phrase meaning

  • “How long until…?” asks for the amount of time before a future event: “How long until the movie starts?”
  • “How long til…?” is the same idea, just more informal and often seen in texts, chats, and forum posts.

About “til,” “till,” and “until”

  • Until is the standard, slightly more formal word for time up to a point: “Stay here until I get back.”
  • Till is an older, fully correct word that means the same as “until,” not a shortened form of it.
  • ’Til/til is an informal or “poetic” shortening of until that shows up in casual writing, songs, and headlines, though many style guides still prefer until or till.

How it’s used in conversation

Common patterns include:

  • “How long til you get here?”
  • “How long til the game starts?”
  • “How long til payday?”

In all of these, the speaker is asking for the stretch of time between now and the moment the event begins or happens.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.