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Thursday
Jun102010

“I probably won't be able to get to that until tomorrow morning.”

You're really busy at work today. Someone calls to ask you for help with something, but you have other work that needs to be done first. After you say "sorry", you say:

I probably won't be able to get to that until tomorrow morning.

I won't be able to (do something)

This is a way to say what you can't do in the future. You use this phrase when you're saying "no" to a request. The situation above is an example. You also use "I won't be able to" when you're saying no to an invitation:

I'm really sorry, but I won't be able to make it to New York next month.

get to (something)

When you use "get to ___", it sounds like you have a long list of things to do, and you're finally reaching one item on the list. You use this phrase when you're busy.

(not) until (time)

You use "until" in negative sentences when you want to say when something happens. When you use "not until ___", it sounds like something happened late:

The show didn't start until after midnight.

You didn't even remember my name until I told you.

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