English Grammar - ALREADY & YET

Hi, my name is Alex, and welcome to this lesson on using the words "already" and "yet".

Now, these are both time-related words, and we use them when we want to talk about if

something has happened before now, or if something hasn't happened before now, so before the

present.

Okay?

So, for example, the question I have here is, "Are you going to take your medicine?"

If you have not taken your medicine before now, you would use "yet".

Perhaps you intend to take it, so "I haven't taken it yet", meaning that you have the intention

of taking it in the future, but before now, you haven't taken it.

If you have taken it before now, you would use "already".

So, you would say, well, if you're asked the question again, "Are you going to take your

medicine?"

and you have taken it before now, "I have already taken it."

Okay, now there are a couple of things that I want to point out.

Just keep in mind that when you are using "yet", you're going to put "have not" plus

the past participle of the verb that you're using.

So again, past participle of "take" is "taken".

I have not taken it yet, versus when you're using "already", you just have "have", stick

"already" between the past participle and "have".

I have already taken it.

Okay.

Now, "already" and "yet" also have some functions when asking questions.

For example, if you want to find out, again, if something has happened before now, you

would use "yet".

Have you cleaned your room yet?

Is it done?

Is it done?

Versus "already", you can use "already" to express surprise, depending on how you ask

the question.

So, if you're surprised that your friend Dana has completed her homework extremely quickly,

you would say, "Has Dana already finished her homework?"

So you can use it to express surprise with the question.

It's more so of a statement than an actual question at that point.

Okay.

I also wanted to point out one more thing with using "already" and "yet", and that is

the placement of "already" and "yet" in the phrase.

You can actually have it either between "have", well, in the case of "yet", you would have

it between "have not" and the past participle, as opposed to "already" where you would have

it just between "have" and the past participle, or at the very end of the sentence.

So, for example, you can say, "I have not yet seen Africa", meaning you have the intention

of seeing it in the future, possibly.

You can also say, "I have not seen Africa yet."

Okay?

As, if you're using "already" with these sentences, you can say, "I have already seen Africa",

or you can say, "I have seen Africa already."

Okay so if you'd like to do a quiz on this lesson just to make sure that you got it perfectly,

please check out www.engvid.com.

My name is Alex.

Take care.