What happens when you type a URL? Time clauses with as soon as, until and once
About this lesson
Time clauses with as soon as, until and once put the steps of a process in order in this B1 English for IT lesson plan on how apps load.
- Grammar
- When, before, after, as soon as, once and until with the present simple, also about the future: I'll deploy it once the tests pass.
- Topic
- Explaining how a web page or an app loads at a fictional payments startup, with words such as request, response, token and round trip.
- Activities
- A GitHub document's story and a wiki page to read, a call to follow, self-checking drills, a chat and open boxes, then a wiki page to write and a recording.
What's inside
Chapter 1Warm-up: Press Enter
Chapter 2The Story: From Enter to the Page
Chapter 3At Work: Inside the Merchant App
Chapter 4Listen: Why Is the Home Screen Slow?
Chapter 5Grammar: As Soon As It Arrives…
Chapter 6Speak Up: Explain It Step by Step
Chapter 7Homework: Your Process, Step by Step
- Read your phrase bankReal-life documentTry it
- Put the sentences in the correct order: from Enter to the pageDrag and dropUnlock
- Put the letters in the correct orderAnagramUnlock
- Write a wiki page: what happens when…?Writing, checked by the teacherUnlock
- Record yourself explaining a processSpeaking, checked by the teacherUnlock
Vocabulary
12 words and phrases from the lesson, each with a picture and audio in edio.
+9 more with pictures and audio in the lessonMore words
- a DNS lookup
- a handshake
- a token
- a spinner
- a round trip
- a cache hit
- fetch
- load
- render
Grammar: time clauses with as soon as, until and once
A process is a chain of steps, and time clauses hook each step to the next: when, before, after, as soon as, once and until. From a tap on an app icon to a typed web address, learners see that the time clause stays in the present simple, both for a process that happens every time and for a plan.
Time clauses: one step, then the next
After when, before, after, as soon as, once and until, use the present simple: for a process and for a plan.
Six time words for one process
Before and after give the order of two steps. As soon as means right after, with no wait, and once means after something is done: As soon as the app has a token, it sends a request. The main clause takes the present simple or will.
Six time words for a process
| Time word | It means | Example |
|---|---|---|
| when | at that moment, every time | When a merchant taps the icon, the app checks its cache. |
| before | earlier than the other step | The app checks its cache before it sends a request. |
| after | later than the other step | After the DNS server answers, the browser opens a connection. |
| as soon as | right after, with no wait | As soon as the app has a token, it sends a request. |
| once | after something is done | I'll deploy it once the tests pass. |
| until | up to that moment (something lasts) | The page stays blank until the response arrives. |
The form
time word + present simplemain clause (present simple or will)
As soon as the browser gets the IP address, it sends a request.
When the call ends, I'll create a ticket.
A process or a plan: no will after the time word
In a process, both clauses take the present simple: When the response arrives, the app renders the screen. In a plan, will goes into the main clause only: When the response arrives, I'll check the logs, never when it will arrive.
A process or a plan: the time clause stays in the present
A process (every time)
- When the response arrives, the app renders the screen.
A plan (the future)
- When the response arrives, I'll check the logs.
From the lesson
- When Felix opens the app in the morning, the cache is old.a process
- As soon as the app has the new token, it sends the request.a process
- The spinner stays until the response arrives.a process
- I'll create a ticket as soon as we finish.a plan
- I'll talk to Kenji when San Francisco wakes up.a plan
Until: something lasts up to that moment
Until needs something that continues: The page stays blank until the response arrives. With a negative, it means not before: We won't release it until Jordan checks it. For the very next step, use as soon as or when instead.
until = something lasts up to that moment
Use until when something continues up to a moment: the page stays blank, the merchant waits, we won't release it. For the very next step, use as soon as or when, not until. With not, until means “not before”: We won't release it until Jordan checks it.
Comma or no comma?
A time clause at the start of a sentence ends with a comma: Once the tests pass, I'll deploy it. At the end, it needs no comma: I'll deploy it once the tests pass.
Time clause first: a comma
- Once the tests pass, I'll deploy it.
Time clause second: no comma
- I'll deploy it once the tests pass.
Typical mistakes
I'll deploy it as soon as the tests will pass.
I'll deploy it as soon as the tests pass.
no will after a time word, also about the future
The page stays blank until the response will arrive.
The page stays blank until the response arrives.
present simple after until
After you will press Enter, the browser checks its cache.
After you press Enter, the browser checks its cache.
no will after when, before or after
Until the connection is ready, the browser sends the request.
As soon as the connection is ready, the browser sends the request.
until is for something that lasts, not for the next step
More lessons on this grammar: Future tenses lessons and exercises
Try the as soon as and until exercises
Try them yourself: these are the same exercises your students do in edio.
What's in the lesson
- 11 auto-checked exercises
- 3 games
- 2 teacher-checked tasks
- 1 real-life document
- 2 articles
- 1 grammar scheme
- 1 set of word cards
- 1 audio clip
- 1 picture
- 1 transcript
The main objectives of this lesson are to:
- explain a process step by step with time words: When a merchant taps the icon, the app checks its cache.
- keep the present simple after a time word, also in a plan: I'll create a ticket as soon as we finish.
- use until for something that lasts, not for the next step: The spinner stays until the response arrives.
- write a short wiki page that explains a process from your own work in six to eight steps
Lesson 13 opens unit 5 of English for IT B1 · Inside the Team, How it works, where learners explain systems step by step. It builds on lesson 12's first conditional, whose if clause also keeps the present, and on the A2.1 page about when, before and after; lessons 14 and 15 add the passive and relative clauses. A process is about what waits for what, the job of as soon as, until and once.
A wheel of questions and twelve word cards with pictures and audio, from a request to render, open the lesson. The story is “what-happens-when”, a community document on GitHub that tries to explain in great detail what happens after you press Enter. At work, Kenji's wiki page follows a tap on the app of Kestrel Cloud, a fictional payments startup, to the home screen, and an AI-voiced call explains why it is slow every morning.
Four drills that check themselves follow the scheme, from choosing the right time word to joining two steps into one sentence. In the speaking chapter, students explain to a support colleague what happens after a merchant taps Refund, then open boxes about an ATM, a card payment or a new colleague joining the team.
The homework opens with the phrase bank, then an ordering task from Enter to the page and an anagram that check themselves. Students then write a wiki page on a process from their work and record themselves explaining it; the teacher reviews both.
- Grammar:
- time clauses · when, after, as soon as, until, once
- Topic:
- how the web works · explaining a process · requests and responses
Teaching tips
- Act out a web request: one student is the browser, one the DNS server and one the web server, and the class narrates each move: As soon as the DNS server answers, the browser…
- Play the call twice: first for the reason the home screen is slow, then for every when, as soon as, until and once the students can catch.
- With an in-company group, explain one of their own processes, such as a deploy or a support request: one learner talks it through, and the others keep asking And after that?
- One-to-one, play the colleague from support: ask So it happens right away? about a process the learner knows, so the answer needs until or as soon as.
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The whole course: English for IT B1 · Inside the Team
24 lessons at B1 for people who build, test or run software, in American English. Learners follow Iryna, a junior developer, through her first year at Kestrel Cloud, a fictional payments startup: standups, tickets, code review, chats across time zones and job interviews. Each lesson is built around a true story from software history.See the course
Unit 1 Hello, team
roles, stacks and first days: the present simple, the present perfect with for and since, question forms
Unit 2 The daily standup
updates and blockers: the present simple and continuous, just, already and yet, have to and need to
Unit 3 Bugs and tickets
clear bug reports: the past continuous, imperatives and the zero conditional, quantifiers
Unit 4 Code review
kind, useful comments: -ed and -ing adjectives, modals for suggestions, the first conditional
Unit 5 How it works
explaining systems step by step: time clauses, the passive, relative clauses
Lesson 13 · you're hereWhat happens when you type a URL?Time clauses with as soon as, until and once
Lesson 14How is a barcode read?The present and past simple passive
Lesson 15Draw it, then say itDefining relative clauses
Unit 6 Remote and async
chat, email and time zones: polite requests, future forms, the present perfect continuous
Unit 7 Users and clients
user stories and plain explanations: verb + to or -ing, reported speech, comparisons
Unit 8 Your next job
resumes and interviews: used to, the past perfect, the second conditional
