už versus ještě: 'already / still / yet / anymore'

Two of the most frequent words in spoken Czech are also two of the messiest to translate: už and ještě. Each is a single syllable, each appears in nearly every conversation, and together they cover four different English words — already, still, yet, anymore — depending on whether the sentence is positive or negative. English speakers reach for the wrong one constantly, not because the logic is hard but because English scatters the same idea across four unrelated words. Czech, by contrast, has a clean two-way system: už points at a change that has happened, ještě at a state that still continues. Everything else falls out of a 2×2 grid you can memorise in a minute.

The core meanings

• už = "already / now (by now)." It marks that a threshold has been crossed — something has started, has changed, or is now the case.
• ještě = "still / yet." It marks that a state is continuing — something is not over, not yet done, or more is to come.

Notice that už often best translates as "now" when it marks a fresh change of state — Už chápu is "now I understand," where a second ago you didn't. That "now, as opposed to before" flavour is the heart of už.

The 2×2 grid — the whole system on one card

Here is the entire system. Read it as: už vs ještě, each crossed with positive vs negative, and watch how the English word changes in every cell.

Take one verb — spát "to sleep" — and run it through all four cells. This single example teaches the whole grid:

The negatives flip the English words

The single biggest source of error is that the negative combinations swap which English word you'd expect. In Czech the negation lands on the verb (with the ne- prefix), and the adverb keeps its base meaning — but English translates the pair as a completely different word.

už ne(-) = "not anymore / no longer." Literally "already not" — the thing was true before and now it isn't:

ještě ne(-) = "not yet." Literally "still not" — the thing hasn't started, but the expectation is that it will:

Put the two negatives side by side and the contrast is razor-sharp:

The verb přijít is identical; only už vs ještě decides between "not coming anymore" and "not yet come." For English speakers this is the crux: "anymore" and "yet" feel unrelated, but in Czech they are simply the negatives of the same two adverbs.

už in questions: "yet?"

In a positive question, už is the natural "yet?" — asking whether the expected change has happened:

The answer flips predictably: Ano, už ("Yes, already") vs Ne, ještě ne ("No, not yet"). This Ještě ne — "not yet" — is one of the most useful two-word replies in the language.

The aspect connection

Už and ještě lock onto verbal aspect because they're about completion, which is exactly what aspect encodes. Už — the "change has happened" word — gravitates to the perfective (a result reached): Už jsem to dodělal "I've already finished it." Ještě — the "still going" word — gravitates to the imperfective (an ongoing state): Ještě to dodělávám "I'm still finishing it." The full interaction, with more paradigm detail, lives on aspect with už and ještě. For the quick decision version, see also už vs ještě: choosing.

A few high-frequency set uses

ještě also means "more / another" when quantifying — "one more, a bit more":

And už intensifies impatience or emphasis in commands — "come on, already":

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

• už = a change has happened → "already / now"; ještě = a state continues → "still / yet."
• The 2×2 grid: už (already) · už ne (not anymore) · ještě (still) · ještě ne (not yet).
• The negatives flip the English word: už nebydlí = "doesn't live here anymore"; ještě nepřišel = "hasn't come yet."
• Contrast pair to burn in: Už nepřijde (not coming anymore) vs Ještě nepřišel (hasn't come yet).
• už pairs with the perfective (a result), ještě with the imperfective (an ongoing state).
• Ještě ne is the everyday "not yet"; už? in a question asks "…yet?"