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I saw an ad regarding Stack Overflow Careers on meh, Stack Overflow. The sentence

Have you joined yet?

evoked a thought in my brain that it isn't sounding good. But that may be because I ain't a native English speaker.

What is it trying to convey?

Have you joined?

Or

Haven't you joined still?

Or something basic which I'm missing. Why is yet used here? If but is used instead of yet, I'm pretty sure that it will be grammatically wrong.

So, what is yet doin' up there?

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    Kids in a car keep asking: "Are we there yet?" (repeat until arrival...)
    – Stephie
    Commented Dec 19, 2014 at 16:46
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    Reminds me of the traditional linguistic example, "when was the last time you beat your wife?" (which assumes that you have done that at some time in the past.) This question similarly is assuming that you are definitely going to join, you just might not have done it yet.
    – neminem
    Commented Dec 19, 2014 at 23:35

3 Answers 3

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Yet is there to give joining a sense of inevitability and excitement. "Have you joined?" would allow and answer like, "No, because X, y and z." It would let people think think of reasons to not join.

Have you joined yet" suggests an answer like "No, I am late" or perhaps "No - I'll do that right now."

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The word "yet" in that context implies that the person who asked you the question believes that you intend to join, and it's just a matter of when. The word "yet" implies a belief on the part of the speaker that the person being spoken to intends to do an action (such as joining something) and intends to do it sometime in the near future.

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Yet vs. Still

Have you joined yet?

for an advert… a little odd to my ears [though not truly 'wrong'], unless it was conversational, one to one, "I heard about this [great thing], have you joined yet?"

I'd push it back a bit to

Haven't you joined yet?

For an advert - it feels more imperative.

Have you joined still?

Not going to work under any circumstance.

Have you still not joined?

Works in a sense of having been repeatedly told to join, yet still didn't do it.

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  • Or in informal contexts: Have you joined already? with already expressing impatience.
    – user6951
    Commented Dec 20, 2014 at 8:48

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