Learn English – Where to put the word “still”

adverbsword-order

He still is a boy.

He is still a boy.

Is there any difference between the two sentences? How about,

He is a boy yet.

He is yet a boy.

What are the differences?

Best Answer

Both positions of "still" are acceptable, but after the verb ("He is still a boy") is much more common. (GloWbE has 86000 instances of "still + [be]" against 520000 instances of "[be] + still" (where by [be] I mean any part of the verb 'be' - am, is, are, were, being, etc.)

In Modern English, "yet" is almost confined to negative and interrogative contexts (it is a negative polarity item), so both of those sentences with 'yet' look old fashioned or poetical. I think the choice between them would be governed by prosody and rhythm rather than meaning.