STILL, ALREADY, YET Meanings and Differences with Example English Sentences

Hi, everybody. I’m Esther.

In this video, I’m going to talk about the similar English time expressions

‘still’, ‘already’, and ‘yet’.

These time expressions can be confusing,

but this video will help you understand the difference and when to use them.

So keep watching.

Let’s start with ‘still’.

It is used as an adverb.

It is used to show situations that started in the past and continue to the present time.

Let’s look at some example sentences.

The first sentence says, ‘It is still snowing.’

The word 'still' emphasizes that snowing started in the past and it continues now.

The next sentence says,

‘My grandfather still jogs every morning.’

So here I want to show that my grandfather is old

but he still continues this action now.

Now, I will talk about ‘already’.

It is also an adverb.

We use ‘already’ to refer to something which has happened before the moment of speaking.

We use already to emphasize some unexpected or surprising situation.

Let’s look at some examples.

The first sentence says,

‘Jenny's already here so we can start.’

We didn't expect Jenny to be here but she is here.

So we want to emphasize that unexpected situation.

The next sentence says,

‘We have just finished dinner but we're already hungry again.’

We didn't expect to be hungry again because we just had dinner.

But unexpectedly we are hungry again

so we say, ‘we're already hungry again’.

Now, I will talk about ‘yet’.

It is an adverb.

It is used to ask if something has happened or occurred.

It can also be used to show that something has not happened

at the moment of speaking.

It is usually placed at the end of a sentence.

Let’s look at some example sentences.

The first sentence says,

‘She hasn't done her homework yet.’

The ‘yet’ at the end of this sentence

shows that at this moment, at this moment of speaking,

she hasn't completed this task.

She hasn't done her homework.

However, it also means that she will do it soon.

The next sentence says,

‘They haven't woken up yet.’

Similarly, the ‘yet’ at the end of this sentence means at this time they're still sleeping.

They haven't woken up yet.

But they will wake up soon.

Now, let's do a checkup.

In this conversation, there are two sentences.

In the sentences, we need to use the words

‘still’, ‘already’, and ‘yet’.

Take a moment to think about where we use these words.

Let's look together.

‘A’ says, ‘We haven't finished lunch _blank_.’

In this case, we're trying to emphasize that at the moment of speaking,

this action hasn't happened

and so we need to use the word ‘yet’.

‘We haven't finished lunch yet’.

The next part of a sentence says,

‘We're _blank_ eating.’

Here, we want to show that an action is continuing

so we should use ‘still’.

‘we're still eating’

‘B’ expresses surprise.

‘Oh really? I’ve _blank_ finished my lunch.’

Which word can show surprise because of an unexpected situation?

The answer is ‘already’.

‘Oh really? I’ve already finished my lunch.’

Let's look at it all together.

Again, ‘A’ says,

‘We haven't finished our lunch yet we're still eating.’

And ‘B’ says,

‘Oh really? I’ve already finished my lunch.’

Now you know the difference between ‘still’, ‘already’, and ‘yet’.

However, this video is not enough to master these expressions.

You need to keep practicing.

Thank you so much for watching this video and I’ll see you in the next video.