still / yet

[nteneva]

Hello teachers,

This is my first post in this forum because I am a new user. I very much like your web site and thus I would like to congratulate you on this extremely valuable for the english learners initiative.
Here is my question: As far as I have read we use "still" to show that an action or a state continues up to the present moment; "yet" is used to show that "something is not in the past or present but in the future" /a quatation from a grammar book/. I.e. we use "still" mainly in affirmatrive sentences and
"yet" is used mainly in questions and negatives. In one of the tests published in this web site I encountered the following sentence:
"You still haven't done that work"
And there were two alternative comments from which the reader must choose the right:
A: The speaker is getting impatient with the person;
B: The speaker is not getting impatient with the person;
Would you please explain in what cases we can use "still" in negative sentences and how this expresses the speaker's attitude and emotion.

Thank you very much.
Nataly

I think the correct comment is the A comment:
"The speaker is getting impatient with the person"

Because, "still" means that an action has been beginned and is continuing at this moment, and "still" means a period and however "yet" means that an action has been done again (I think).

So, here, the speaker is emphasising the time that the person take to do the work because he's using the "still" word.
And if he wasn't impatient, he has'nt used the "still" word: You haven't done that work