Hello and welcome to Wednesday’s Words with English with Languissimo® which will help you improve your vocabulary so that you can communicate better in English.
My name is Vanessa Rocket. I’m the founder and CEO of Languissimo®.
Today, I will quickly cover the difference between “already” and “yet”.
- “Already” is an adverb that is used in questions to know if you have experienced something or not.
Questions are often in the present perfect and “already” goes between the subject and the past participle. For example: Has she already finished listening to the podcast?
You can answer with “yes” and say: “Yes, she has already finished listening to the podcast”.
You can answer with “no” and say: “No, she hasn’t finished listening to the podcast yet.”
In Northern America, “already” is often replaced by “yet” in questions. For example: has she finished listening to the podcast yet?”
- “Yet” is often used with “not” in the phrase “not yet” which means “not at this time”.
“Not yet” is often used in a negative answer to a question in the present perfect with “already”. “Not” is combined with the auxiliary “have” or “has” and “yet” is placed at the end of the sentence. For example: Have they already signed up for our English classes? No, they haven’t signed up for our English classes yet.
Please note that the entire answer could be replaced by “not yet”. For example: Have they already signed up for our English classes? No, not yet.
Some Practice Questions
- Have you already signed up for our English, French or Spanish classes?
- Have you already been to Costa Rica?
Ta da! That’s it for today! I hope you enjoyed this podcast. Subscribe to English with Languissimo®, practice, take care and have a great Wednesday! Big hugs 😊