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what is the difference between "yet" and "still"?
When we can use "still"? and when we can use "yet"?
Are they synonyms or not?
"The plan could yet succeed." Can I use "still" in that sentence instead of "yet"?
"I still don't understand." Can I use "yet" in that sentence too?
In their closest meanings, "still" is used for a situation that is ongoing or unchanged at any point in time, or regardless of any factor, stated or otherwise:
She still loves you. If you lose all your money, she will still love you. Even when you were abusive, she still loved you.
"yet" has a similar interpretation, but describes the state of a something, within a process, at any given time within a progression, up to that point in a process:
He is yet a child. -or- He is a child yet.
He's still a child.
In another usage, it is closer to "already." In questions, it asks whether something has happened "already" or up to the time of questioning, and additionally implies that the addressee is expected or required to do it:
Have you called your mother yet?
Here the speaker possibly commanded or just expects the addressee call his mother, or was informed of the his intention to call his mother, and is questioning whether he has done it. "Already" doesn't have this force - it merely questions the completion of the action logistically:
Have you already called your mother? I wanted to say hello to her. (=Am I too late?)
Note that the idiom "have yet to" is used with the above meaning to express that something expected still hasn't been done:
He has yet to call his mother. (= He's supposed to do it, but hasn't done it.)
I have yet to see that movie. (= I've been meaning to see it, but haven't gotten around to it.)
"Not yet" - or "yet" in any negative context - is the opposite of "already:"
My father already sent me a birthday present.
My father hasn't sent me a birthday present yet.
Finally, "yet" can function as a conjunction like "but, however" that emphasizes a result obtained or a situation that arises despite certain factor(s):
He's only been speaking English for a year, yet he sounds just like an American.
I've asked you a million times not to lock the door, yet every time I come home, it's locked.
Note that "still" can replace "yet" here with the same meaning.
Offhand I can only think of one specific context where yet can't in principle be replaced by still...
1: "Do you love me still?"
2: "Do you love me yet?"
...where the natural implication of #1 is "You loved me before. Has the situation changed?", but for #2 it's "You did not love me. Has the situation changed?"*. Note that in practice most native speakers would put still before rather than after the verb, but grammatically both words can go in either position.
Apart from that, I think you can probably always use still instead of yet. So for simplicity I suggest you only use yet in contexts such as the above (where the focus is on a possible future having arrived, rather than an actual past condition which may no longer apply). That's to say - don't use yet in other contexts, even if theoretically it would be equivalent to still (in what's usually a formal/dated/literary register).
Closely related is the conjunction but, which can often be replaced by yet or still. My advice would be to use but whenever a "contrastive conjunction" is required (i.e. - as above, avoid yet if you don't need it).
TL;DR: You can say "The plan could yet succeed", but you probably don't want to. "The plan could still succeed" is more "natural" English today, particularly in spoken contexts (but it's not "informal").
Yet synonyms:
- even though
- though
- however
- nevertheless
Still synonyms:
- even
- nevertheless
- though
- after all
Sorry, I can't answer your question when to use it, can you please give an example? I will edit my answer.
Still can also mean 'not moving', so one meaning of still is a near-synonym [same meaning] of yet, but other definitions of still take on other meanings. Sometimes still can be used for peaceful, as in "The forest was peaceful" [compare with the "The forest was still"]
