Why use まで instead of 前に


> 電車が出る **まで** 何か食べる時間があるぞ  
>  There is time to eat something **until** your train leaves.

My English translation sounds rather unnatural. We would normally say "There
is time to eat something **before** your train leaves". As such, I would have
written 電車が出る前に... for the Japanese sentence.

Are both まで and 前に correct here? If so, why does まで work in this sentence?




The core part of the sentence is 時間がある, which in this context basically means
you are free. That free time lasts until the train leaves and it can be
utilized for eating something.

電車が出る前に何か食べる時間がある is not wrong but it sounds like you are stating there is
snack time planned before the departure of the train on an itinerary or
something. 〜前に is used to talk about the occurrence of some event before
another event. The focus is on the relative positions of two points on the
timeline.

ある in your sentence doesn't match this punctual image. It translates more to a
line segment on the timeline and まで puts focus on the end of it.




The core part of the sentence is 時間がある, which in this context basically means
you are free. That free time lasts until the train leaves and it can be
utilized for eating something.

電車が出る前に何か食べる時間がある is not wrong but it sounds like you are stating there is
snack time planned before the departure of the train on an itinerary or
something. 〜前に is used to talk about the occurrence of some event before
another event. The focus is on the relative positions of two points on the
timeline.

ある in your sentence doesn't match this punctual image. It translates more to a
line segment on the timeline and まで puts focus on the end of it.

