| Hi, everybody. My name is Alisha. In this lesson, I'm going to talk about some uses of the word "yet." In this lesson, I'm going to introduce four different ways you can use the word "yet." I'm going to talk a little bit about the different positions "yet" can take in a sentence, and I'm going to share some examples of how to use it. Let's begin. |
| Okay. The first use of "yet" that I want to explain is one that maybe many of you already know about. This is the use of "yet," which means like up to now or so far, and something that we use when we want to express an expectation that an action is going to happen in the future. Up to now, the action has not happened. However, we expect that in the future, the action is going to happen. In these cases, we commonly see the word "yet" at the end of a clause or at the end of a sentence. We can, however, see it before an infinitive. |
| I'll explain this in a little bit. Let's start here. Let's look at some examples using "yet" at the end of the sentence. This is a very common position for "yet." First one, "He hasn't done his homework yet." Here, we see "yet" at the end of the sentence. "He hasn't done his homework yet." Here, we're using the negative form of a present perfect tense sentence. "He hasn't done. He has not done his homework yet." Meaning, up until now, he has not finished. He hasn't done his homework, but we expect he's going to do his homework. |
| Let's look at one more sentence. "I haven't sent the files yet." Here again, "yet" is at the end of the sentence. In this case, the subject is "I," so I've changed this to "have not." In this sentence, my first one I had "has not" because the subject was he. Here, I have the same present perfect tense used. "I haven't sent the files yet but I expect I'm going to send the files in the future." "Yet" shows there's some expectation about future action. This action is going to happen in the future. |
| Okay. Let's look at this point that I mentioned earlier. You can use "yet" before an infinitive. Remember, an infinitive is the two form of the verb, like to find or to look or to send, to form. We can use "yet" before the infinitive form of a verb to mean the same thing. There's an expectation the action is going to happen in the future, but the action has not happened yet. Here again, "I have yet to call him back." You'll notice this sentence is positive. Up here, we're using negatives, yeah? Here, it's a positive. In this case, the subject is I, "I have yet." And then here is the simple infinitive form. "I have yet to call him back, but I'm going to call him." We could use this pattern here. Meaning, I haven't called him back yet. These two would mean the same thing. "I haven't called him back yet" and "I have yet to call him back" really mean the same thing. We're making a positive sentence here or a negative sentence with this pattern. |
| Let's look at one more example. "They have yet to contact us." Again, "they have yet," and then the infinitive form, "to contact," in this case, is the infinitive form of the verb. "They have yet to contact us, but we expect they're going to contact us in the future." One more example of this. Here, my subject is she, so she, here, I've used "has." "She has yet to arrive." "She has yet to arrive" is my infinitive form of the verb. "She has yet to arrive," meaning, she hasn't arrived yet to use this pattern, but we expect she is going to arrive in the future. There are these two positions for the word "yet" in these sentences of expectation. |
| We can also use this to make questions. Up here, this is a question of confirmation. "You haven't eaten lunch yet?" Here, we see "yet" is used again at the end of the sentence. "You haven't eaten lunch yet?" This person is surprised that the other person has not eaten lunch. They are looking to confirm. They want to confirm the other person has not eaten lunch. They're surprised. "You haven't eaten lunch yet?" Here's a simple information question. "Has she finished work yet?" Again, we see "yet" at the end of the sentence here. We can also use "yet" to make a question, to get information. |
| Okay. Let's move along to the second meaning, the second use of "yet" that I want to look at for today. This use refers to a continuing state. Let's first look at some examples and then I'll explain this visual here. First example, "We have a way to go yet." Here, "yet" is at the end of my sentence, yes. Here, I have a way. A "way" means like a distance, maybe a long way or long road. There are many things to do, many, maybe things that we need to take care of. Maybe I'm traveling somewhere; a way. This is one example. |
| Second example, "There's/there is. There is work to do yet." Again, here, "yet" is at the end of the sentence. Both of these examples refer to a continuing state. Here, we're seeing there is some action that has been happening, some action that has been continuing. I marked it with the red line here. In this case, "There's work to do yet." In this case, my second example, the people involved in this have been working, working, working, and the speaker is saying this sentence right now at this point here. "Work to do yet." Again, with that kind of expectation, feeling, meaning in the future, there is still something that needs to happen. There is still work that needs to be done. Meaning, this state has continued and it's going to continue into the future. Same thing here. "We have a way to go yet." We've been traveling, traveling, traveling. The speaker makes the statement here to say there's still more traveling to do. "We have a way to go yet." This has kind of the feeling of still. "We still have a way to go." "There's still work to do" is a different way of saying these expressions. |
| Okay. Let's move along to the third use of "yet" I want to describe for today. This is using "yet" as a conjunction. Remember, conjunctions are used to connect ideas. In this case, "yet" means but or however. You'll often see this used as "and yet," but actually, we don't really need to use "and" because "yet" is connecting the ideas. You might see a lot of people, a lot of sentences using "and yet" to act as sort of two conjunctions together, but really, "yet" is fine on its own. Let's look at some examples of using "yet" as a conjunction, which means but or however. |
| First one, "We have so much to do, yet we have so little time." Here, we're presenting two ideas. "We have so much to do" is Part A. Part B, maybe, "We have so little time," not a lot of time. Think of this "yet" as but or however. "We have so much to do, but we have so little time to do it." A yet be, a but be, a however be. This is the use of "yet" here as a conjunction. Let's look at one more example then. "He contacted me about the meeting, yet forgot to send me the documents." Here's one part of the sentence, one part of the situation. "He contacted me about the meeting." Okay. "Yet," in this case, I've dropped "he." "He forgot to send me the documents." I've dropped "he" here. "But he forgot to send me the documents," as the second part. "He contacted me, but he forgot to send me the documents." I've used "yet" here instead of "but." We can use "yet" to connect ideas, to act as a conjunction in this case. |
| Alright. Let's look at the last use for this lesson over here, number four. We can use "yet" as an emphasis word. This is often placed before a word like "again" or "another." We're emphasizing that something has happened again, or we're emphasizing another instance of something. Let's look at some examples here. "He forgot his keys, yet again." Here, "yet" is placed before the word "again." If we don't use "yet," "He forgot his keys, again." Yes, it's a strong statement, maybe like a criticism, he always forgets his keys, but this phrase is a little more strong, a little more critical. "He forgot his keys, yet again." It sounds like this is a very common thing for him and maybe it's irritating to the speaker. |
| Let's look at one more example. "Today, I received yet another angry message from a customer." Here, I said, "I received yet another angry message." Here, I'm talking about angry messages. Meaning, I got yet another. It's emphasizing how many angry messages the speaker receives from customers. Again, if we don't use "yet," "Today, I received another angry message from a customer," it doesn't have the same strength. It doesn't have the same seriousness as using yet. "Today, I received yet another angry message." It sounds much stronger. |
| Please remember, you can use "yet." In these cases, I've used it with "again" and "another," but you can use these for emphasis, these expressions. Give these a try as well. Okay. Those are four ways to use the word "yet" in many different situations. I hope that this was useful for you. If you have any questions, please feel free to let us know in the comment section of this video. Thanks very much for watching this episode and I'll see you again soon. Bye. |
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