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If I have to write a causative sentence in Present Perfect, where should I put yet, at the end of the question or right after the negation?

  • She hasn't had her doors mended by the carpenter yet.
  • She hasn't had her doors mended yet by the carpenter.
  • Has she had her doors mended yet?

Could I say this:

  • She hasn't had yet her doors mended.
  • Has she had yet her doors mended?

Which is the right order, or are both acceptable?

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  • Yet, like most adverbs, can go in a number of places. All the sentences you suggest are grammatical. So are the ones in the one answer so far.
    – John Lawler
    Commented May 16, 2014 at 13:34

4 Answers 4

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Consider:

She has not yet had her door mended.

Has she yet had her door mended?

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  • +1 to the first one. Others on this page are also correct, but IMHO it is clearer to place the yet immediately after the not. The second is OK too, but FWIW I would probably say Has she had her door mended yet? (Or depending on what is meant, Has she already had her door mended?)
    – Drew
    Commented May 19, 2014 at 4:02
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In this case, I would probably use

She hasn't had her doors mended as of yet.

Then again, this adds a sense of time-sensitivity to the expression, and I'm not sure that's what you're going for here.

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  • 3
    Note that as of yet is considered nonstandard by some (and certainly as not very natural by me). I also don’t really see why you add as (of) here—it doesn’t really serve any semantic purpose.
    – Janus Bahs Jacquet
    Commented May 16, 2014 at 16:34
  • @JanusBahsJacquet: I believe it's considered a decorative accessory by some speakers.
    – John Lawler
    Commented May 16, 2014 at 16:38
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I would say:

She hasn't had her door mended yet.

Has she had her door mended yet?

Alternately, you could use the preterite and say:

She didn't have her door mended yet.

Did she have her door mended yet?

If you want to emphasize the fact that it's a carpenter who did the job, consider using the active voice:

The carpenter hasn't mended her door yet/The carpenter hasn't yet mended her door.

Has the carpenter mended her door yet?/Has the carpenter yet mended her door?

Or, in the preterite:

The carpenter didn't mend her door yet.

Did the carpenter mend her door yet?

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If one comes from Brooklyn, New York say: 'She had her doors mended not yet.' or 'Are her doors mended not yet?' This is correct usage in Brooklyn and was one of Chief Justice Felix Frankfurter's favorite constructions when writing opinions for the US Supreme Court.

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