Just / Yet / Already

Hello and welcome to today’s episode of the Gold Forest English Podcast. I’m sorry for the delay. Life sometimes gets in the way, and sometimes laziness causes delays. But I’m here today, back with another episode.

Today, I wanted to talk about three words that we often use with the present perfect. So remember, present perfect is have or has with verb 3. So verb 3 like eat, eaten, go, went, gone. So sentences like, “I have eaten sushi.” “She has gone to the supermarket.” This is the present perfect.

And three words that we often use with the present perfect are the words just, yet, and already. So you might be familiar with these three words - just, yet, and already. We use them in different ways, and they have different meanings. But they’re very common in spoken English and in written English, so they’re very important, useful words to learn.

So let’s look at them one by one, and then we’ll talk about some of the more advanced things to know.

So starting with the word just, we use the word just with positive sentences. So positive sentences meaning positive grammar. So “I like,” “I go,” “I can.” “I hate,” “I dislike.” Those last two are negative feelings - hate and dislike - but they are still positive grammar, compared to negative grammar, which is “I don’t want,” “I don’t go,” “I don’t like.” Those are the negative grammar.

So the word just we use with the positive grammar sentences to talk about something that has happened very, very recently.

So for example, “He has just gone to the bathroom.” He’s not here right now. He has just gone to the bathroom. Five seconds ago or ten seconds ago, one minute ago in the past, he went to the bathroom. So we’re just talking about the recent action, the very recent action.

Next is the word already. Already is with positive sentences, and it’s used to talk about things that have happened earlier than expected. So we’re talking about something that has occurred, has happened, and this was earlier than planned, earlier than expected.

So for example, “It is 11 o’clock, but I have already eaten lunch.” So 11 o’clock is a little bit early for lunch, and so it’s a bit earlier than people might expect. “It’s 11 o’clock, but I’ve already eaten lunch.” So we’re using already to talk about these actions, positive grammar, actions that have already taken place. They’ve happened in the past and it was earlier than expected.

Finally, we’ve got the word yet. Yet is used in negative sentences and in questions, and it’s checking about the progress - do it or not do it.

So we might use a negative sentence: “I haven’t eaten lunch yet.” This is talking about my eating lunch - no, not happened - and I’m planning to do it in the future. “I haven’t eaten lunch yet.” Maybe I will eat lunch in a minute, in an hour. I’m going to eat lunch in the future, but it hasn’t happened today previously.

So negative sentences like that: “She hasn’t arrived yet.” “He hasn’t got a car yet.”

Or it might be in questions: “Have you eaten lunch yet?” “Has he got a car yet?” “Has she passed the test yet?” I’m checking the progress. I’m checking if this action has happened or not happened at the moment.

So these are our basic uses of the words just, yet, and already. But there is one more advanced use of these words, and that’s the use of already in questions.

So this is fairly common, but it’s quite specific - using already in a question. Normally, as I said before, already is for positive sentences, but we can use it in questions when we want to show surprise, when we are surprised and maybe a little bit emotional about this point.

So it’s being used in questions which have positive grammar.

So let’s look at some examples.

“Has he arrived already?” I’m very surprised that this person is here at this time. I expected him to arrive later. So I’m asking the question, “Has he arrived already?” This is the question using positive verb - arrived. We’re not using negative - not arrived, has not arrived - that would be the negative verb.

So, “Has he arrived already?” I’m surprised. I’m showing my surprise that he has done this earlier than I expected. I’m checking, I’m asking, but I’m surprised about it.

Another simple example would be, “Have you eaten lunch already?” I’m checking. I’m asking a question. I don’t know the answer, but I think you have eaten lunch, and I’m surprised that you have possibly eaten lunch. Again, maybe the time is 11 o’clock, and it’s a bit early for eating lunch. I’m surprised, and I’m asking because I’m not sure, but I think you have, and I’m surprised about it.

So we can use this word already, which is normally in positive sentences, we can use it in positive questions when we are surprised about the possible situation. We’re checking, we’re maybe unsure, or we just want to show our surprise about it.

So this is something a bit less common - using already in questions. Although this is fairly common in English to use the word already in questions, it’s less common than the traditional way of using already in sentences. So you will probably hear it or read it as you continue to study English and listen to English spoken conversation. We do sometimes use the word already in questions to show our surprise.

All right, that’s the main point that I wanted to talk about today. So I hope you found this interesting. As always, I’ve put a blog post on the website, which has a lot more examples and information about this topic and some connected things, discussing the emotional connections with this word and the other words.

So if you’re interested in the words just, yet, and already, definitely go and check out the blog post on goldforestacademy.com.

And again, I apologise for the delay in this podcast. Actually, I’m not sure if I did apologise before, but here it is. I’m sorry that this podcast is much later than the last one. I think I’ve just been quite lazy about recording a podcast. But I have been doing the blog posts and posting on Instagram as normal. I’ve just been a bit lazy with recording a podcast.

It still doesn’t feel completely comfortable and natural for me. But hopefully I’ll get better, improving my recording, my comfort, and my schedule.

Thank you very much for listening. I will see you in the next episode, which I hope will not be several months in the future. Hopefully next week. I’ll do my best.

Thank you very much. Goodbye.