How has this year been so far? Have you accomplished (all) your goals for this year yet? I hope you have already achieved some of your goals. Which goals haven’t you (quite) achieved yet?
Did the 3 signal words for Present Perfect (Past Present – Dave’s version) become clear above?
- so far – “How has your year been for you so far?”
- yet – “Have you already achieved your goals for this year yet?”
- already – “I hope you have already achieved some of my goals for this year.
This year started in the past and we’re still in this year so we’re talking about what has happened between 1. Jan (PAST) and NOW (PRESENT). 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.
to accomplish a goal (Ziel erreichen), so far (bisher/lang), yet (bis jetzt), already (bereits), rule of thumb (Faustregel)
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To recommend (empfehlen), commission (Provision),