Use of until: Until I had learnt Italian, I didn't go to...

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
1

Hi teachers,

Please look at this sentence.

I didn’t go to Italy until I had learnt Italian.

Can I put ‘until’ at the biginning without changing the meaning?

[color=blue]Until I had learnt Italian, I didn’t go to Italy.

In my language, if we put until at the biginning the meaning is changed. I don’t know why?

Thanks in advance

Jupiter

2

.
The meaning is the same, Jupiter. But, putting the ‘until’ clause first puts more emphasis on that part of the sentence.

Amy

3

I think there’s a slight difference in the feel of each sentence.

“I didn’t go to Italy until I had learned Italian,” means to me that the person didn’t dare travel to Italy until he knew he could speak Italian. Maybe he wanted to and planned to, but he made sure he learned Italian first.

“Until I had learned Italian, I didn’t go to Italy,” sounds to me as if the person became interested in going to Italy after he had learned Italian. Maybe he would have gone there without knowing Italian, but it so happened that he went there after he had learned the language.