It’s the final furlong. With Halloween & All Saints’ Day behind us, we’re entering the last furlong of 2017 with the finishing line just around the corner. Time will race by to the photo finish on New Year’s Eve.
How has your 2017 been so far? Have you accomplished (all) your goals for 2017 yet? I hope you have already achieved some of your goals for 2017. Which goals haven’t you (quite) achieved yet?
Did the 3 signal words for Present Perfect (Past Present – Dave’s version) become clear above?
1. so far – “How has 2017 been for you so far?”
2. yet – “Have you already achieved your goals for 2017?”
3. already – “I hope you have already achieved some of my goals for 2017.
2017 started in the past and we’re still in 2017 so we’re talking about what has happened between 1. Jan and 2 Nov. The 3 words often work together, check out the parent/kid scenario:
Parents “Have you finished all your homework yet”?
Kid “Yes, I’ve already finished maths & French but haven’t finished English yet?
Parent “How much have you done so far?”
Kid “Not much so far – I’ll finish it later”.
As a very simplified rule of thumb way to remember which to use when, here’s my KISS version – ‘yet’ is mostly used in ‘questions’ and ‘negative’ statements/answers, ‘already’ in ‘positive’ statements/answers and ‘so far’ in ‘questions’ and ‘negative’ statements/answers.
Hope it helps – stay tuned for more.
furlong (Achtelmeile), to accomplish a goal (Ziel erreichen), so far (bisher/lang), yet (bis jetzt), already (bereits), rule of thumb (Faustregel)