Learn Dutch: Het pakket blijft hier tot en met vrijdag. - The package stays here up to and including Friday.

Using just tot vrijdag means "until Friday," which can be ambiguous—it usually implies the package will be gone by the time Friday starts. Adding en met explicitly means "up to and including" Friday, making it perfectly clear that the package will still be there on Friday itself.

Is there a common abbreviation for tot en met?

Yes! In everyday writing, such as store signs or quick emails, you will very often see this abbreviated as t/m. A note on the package might simply say: hier t/m vrijdag.

The translation says "stays here", but it refers to a future time frame. Do I need a future tense verb like zal here?

No, you don't. Just like in English ("The package stays here until Friday"), Dutch frequently uses the simple present tense (blijft) to talk about future events. This is especially common when a time phrase like tot en met vrijdag already makes the future timeframe clear without needing extra verbs.

How is tot en met pronounced in everyday, fast speech?

Dutch speakers usually swallow the 'n' in en, so the three words blend together quickly and sound more like "tot-uh-met".