yet and still

yet and still

1. These two adverbs used to be more interchangeable than they are now. A sentence such as Mrs. Throckmorton was shot in her apartment last night, and the bullet is in her yet, in which yet denotes continuity of action up to the time in question, would be acceptable, especially informally, in America (the source of this extract) and Scotland, but in the English of England still would be used instead of yet and the word order would usually be different:…and the bullet is still in her. In England, yet is used to mean ‘up to this time’ or ‘up to then’ (1) in a question or after a negative (Is she 21 yet? / She wasn't yet 18 / Have they arrived yet? / They haven't arrived yet [or haven't yet arrived] / I hadn't yet decided what to do). Note the position of yet in these examples, and note that with action verbs the perfect tense (formed with have) or past perfect tense (formed with had) is used, but in AmE a past tense formed with do is also used informally: Did they arrive yet? In the negative examples, still can also be sometimes used, e.g. They still haven't arrived.

2. It is worth pointing out that in Scottish English a question such as Is it raining yet? would be ambiguous, equivalent to the English English questions ‘Has it started to rain yet?’ and ‘Is it still raining?’. In conversation, intonation would normally clarify, but this might need to be accentuated south of the border.

3. In positive contexts, yet is used as a more formal alternative to still in the following types, normally with be, have to, or a modal verb such as can: We'd better do it while there is yet time / I have yet to receive a reply / I can hear her yet.

4. See also already ².