もう vs まだ: Already, Yet, Still & Not Any More

Most textbooks introduce these two words in a single vocabulary line — もう = already, まだ = not yet — and move on. Then the learner meets もう食たべません and reads it as “already not eating”, or meets まだ雨あめです and wonders how rain can be “not yet”. The vocabulary line was not wrong; it was half the story. Each of these words has two meanings, and which one you get depends entirely on whether the verb that follows is positive or negative.

The good news is that the four meanings are not four facts to memorise. They come from one picture.

The one picture behind もう and まだ

Both words are about a change you expect to happen — finishing a meal, a friend arriving, winter ending, becoming an adult. They place now on one side of that change or the other.

That is why a positive and a negative can both go with the same word. Take eating. Before the meal (まだ) you can describe what is still going on — still eating — or what has not arrived — not eaten yet. After the change (もう) you can describe the new fact — already eaten — or what has stopped — not eating any more. Same picture, four sentences.

The four-cell map

Read the map as two questions. Has the change happened? Yes → もう row. No → まだ row. Is the verb positive or negative? That picks the column. Everything below is this map applied to real sentences.

Cell 1 — もう + positive: already

Cell 2 — もう + negative: not any more

This is the cell English speakers misread most, because English puts “already” and “any more” in different words. In Japanese the change has happened (もう), and what the negative describes is the thing that stopped because of it.

Cell 3 — まだ + positive: still

Cell 4 — まだ + negative: not yet (and the mistake almost everyone makes)

Here is the rule that textbooks state once and that learners break for years: “not yet” is まだ + ていません, not まだ + ませんでした.

If this feels strange, it is because English hides the same logic inside the word have: “I haven't eaten” versus “I didn't eat”. Japanese ていません is doing the job of English haven't. The deeper reason ている can mean a resulting state rather than “-ing” is in why 〜ている is not always -ing.

How to answer “have you … yet?”

もう〜ましたか is the standard way to ask have you done it yet? It is one of the most common questions in daily life — meals, homework, tickets, messages — and it has a fixed set of good answers.

In casual speech the question shrinks to もう食たべた？ and the answers to うん、食たべた / ううん、まだ. For how はい and いいえ themselves behave when a question turns negative, see はい doesn't always mean yes.

Minimal pairs: the same sentence, the other word

The fastest way to feel the difference is to hold the sentence still and swap only もう for まだ. Each pair below describes the same situation from opposite sides of the change.

The first pair is the one worth memorising: まだ寒くない and もう寒くない are both negative sentences about the cold, and yet one is said in October and the other in April. The negative did not decide the meaning — the side of the change did.

The other jobs of もう

もう has three more uses that have nothing to do with the map above, and they appear constantly at N5 and N4. The position in the sentence tells you which one you are looking at.

まだまだです — the reply to every compliment

Doubling まだ makes it stronger: still, still — a long way to go. Its most famous use is the modest reply when someone praises your skill, and as a learner of Japanese you will be given the chance to use it very often.

When you meet すでに and いまだに

Later, in reading passages at N4 and N3, you will meet two written cousins. 既すでに is a formal already — the もう of news articles and notices: 申もうし込こみは既すでに終おわっています (applications have already closed). 未いまだに is a heavy still, even now, often with a note of surprise that something has not changed. You do not need to produce either at N5, but recognising them keeps reading passages from stalling.