Already VS Still VS Yet

Hi. I’m Vanessa from Speak English with Vanessa.com.

Did you already do it? Are you still doing it or have you not done it yet? Let’s talk about it.

In the last couple weeks, I had a couple students ask me “which one should Ii use: already, still

Yet? Which one’s correct? And because a couple people asked me I thought “hey, This is a great topic to share with everyone”. So I want to help you today to start to understand how to use already, still , and yet. I think the easiest way to think about these three words is by imagining a timeline. First, we have the past, then the present, and then the future. So let’s start with the past: We use already in the past, still in the present, and yet in the future. Let’s focus on already.

Let’s imagine that your friend calls you and says “Hey, do you want to eat dinner? You might say” Oh, I’m sorry. I already ate dinner”. This is something that you did in the past. I already ate dinner. It’s finished now. I already studied English today.So I’m tired. I need to give my brain a break, or I already watched TV for three hours so now, I need to go out and move, and exercise. I already sat for a long time. This is something in the past.

Let’s move to talk about the present:

The word still, still. So, for example, your friend is calling you again. Your friend loves to call you and she says: “Hey why aren’t you at my house? You said that you would be here at eleven o’clock.” You might say “Oh, I’m sorry. I’m still getting ready.” At the moment you are getting ready. Maybe you’re changing your clothes, or you’re taking care of the house. At the moment you’re doing something. I’m still getting ready and that’s why we often use the word still with ing. Still getting ready. I’m still working. I’m still speaking English. That’s great. I’m still doing something at the moment. Now, let’s go to the future. Wow, let’s go to the future. It’s awesome.

Let’s talk about the word yet, yet. So, we use yet for example in this situation:

Your friend is calling you again. Turn off your phone. Your friend calls too much. Your friend is calling you again and says “Hey. why aren’t you at my house it’s 11 o’clock? “You might say “I haven’t gotten in the car yet.” Because you used the word yet, it means that you probably will do this in the future, but at the moment, you haven’t done it yet. So here’s another example:

Maybe your teacher says “Hey! Did you watch that video that I sent you for our lesson?” And you might say “Oh, I haven’t watched it yet.” But don’t worry I’ll watch it before our next lesson.” It means you’re gonna do it in the future, but at the moment you haven’t done it. So there’s an expectation that you will do it in the future. And I want to let you know we use this in a negative way. I haven’t done something yet. I haven’t eaten dinner yet. I haven’t gone to the store yet. There’s an expectation that it’s gonna happen in the future. So now I have a challenge for you. Are you ready? I want you to write three sentences in the comments below. One of them using already, one of them with still, and one of them with yet. I hope that you can fully understand this idea and when you read each other’s comments in each other’s sentences. You can more fully get the context of these expressions. I hope this video today was useful for you and if it was, come back for more on this channel. I’ll see you later. Bye.