As an addition to the previous usage note, I feel that the difference between まだ～ない and まだ～ていない can be linked somewhat to the relative closeness of the action (time-wise), as well as how definite the action is.
With a few tweaks in the English translation, I think this can be clarified further.
今年 は 桜 が まだ 咲かない 。- The cherry blossoms this year won't bloom yet.
今年 は 桜 が まだ 咲いていない 。The cherry blossoms this year haven't bloomed yet.
Comparing these two sentences, you can see how the ていない shows an action that is more strongly expected in the relatively-close future.
まだ日本に行かない。I won't go to Japan yet (this sounds like speaker does plan to go to Japan eventually, but doesn't have fixed plans yet, has other things to do (learn Japanese, save money, etc.) before that happens.
まだ日本に行ってない。I haven't gone to Japan yet (this could be used when you've got the ticket for next week, plans are finalized, it just hasn't happened yet.
今年 は 桜さくらが まだ 咲さか な い 。 "The cherry blossoms haven't blossomed yet this year."
The verb does not seem to have to be て form to follow this usage pattern
Furthermore, in another example: 今日はまだテレビを見ていない。 I haven't yet watched TV today.
You'll find まだ before the direct object noun, not the before the て-form verb. Maybe that's understood, but with so few usage examples given here, I thought it wasn't clear enough.
So I was talking to a Japanese person in Japanese several months ago and we got to talking about family at one point during the conversation. One of the things I said while on that topic was that, "I am still living with my parents." まだ両親と住んでいます。The guy said he didn't understand if I was still living with them or not though because he said まだ is negative or something like that (basically that it's something like the 2nd usage here). So it seemed like he was saying that the first usage of まだ here is wrong, but I'm pretty sure I've heard まだ used in a positive sense while watching stuff in Japanese.
My question then is what went wrong here? Because if I had to guess, I would say it looks like まだ in the positive "still" sense can only be used with more action-oriented verbs and that 住む is treated more as a state than an action; 住む does use the に particle instead of で after all. If this is the case, then can まだ not be used with other state-like verbs or other verbs that use に（例え：務める), or is 住む just an exception?
I'm going to go way out on a limb here, and hope that someone else can give additional information. I'd have to wonder if it might be a cultural expectation here that guides that meaning of まだ. I'm American, and most people in the States establish 'independence' from their parents at an early age: moving out, finding their own place, etc. It's so strong that when you say "I'm still living with my parents", there is an implication (most of the time) that you'd leave if you can, but something is keeping you there.
Japanese youth, on the other hand, tend to stay in the house for a much longer period of time, and I wonder if saying "I'm still living with my parents" over "I'm living with my parents" suggests disrespect? Again, just a guess.
I did double check some grammar resources, and it can certainly be used with the positive form. Just feels like there's a more subtle nuance that took place in your conversation.
I think those might fall under 'common' usage that don't require an explicit grammar explanation (in the same way that grammar pages don't exist for many adverbs like よく or けっこう). In fact, I would say that the first grammar example on the page would fall into that 'common usage' category, except that it was explicitly referred to in the old JLPT grammar lists.
I am a little perplexed on one point here. まだ comes before the verb, but I am wondering, if it is a linked verb, such as リンゴをたべる。 Where would まだ go? Before リンゴ or before 食べる？
[color=red]まだ[/color]リンゴを食べている。
リンゴを[color=red]まだ[/color]食べている。
Without putting too much though into it, I believe they are both valid, and adjust the focus of the sentence. If I am right,then...
まだリンゴを食べている。 <<This would possibly imply that you have eaten other things, but not the apple.
リンゴをまだ食べている。 <<This sounds like the emphasis is on the action of eating, compared to other things that you could do to an apple (clean it, peel it, cut it, etc).
Hello, I could very well be wrong, but I am pretty sure you are missing a important construction for the second grammar point. I feel that the one you have given is not as comman a construction as the one I will share. But that aside, in order to say "(I) haven't done (verb) yet" you could use this construction: まだ + (negative verb form). So in order to say "I haven't eaten yet" you would say, まだ食べません. I hope I have contributed some! :)
[EDIT]: I just found a 15 page research paper (in Japanese) just on this very distinction; it is a bit too academic for me to parse, but needless to say, I no longer think they can be so easily grouped into two categories, and will wait until someone else can clarify the issue.
(original message below)
While that works, I would say it is definitely the less used of the two.
まだ食べません is...more of a statement about your intentions/wish, as in 'I will not eat yet'.
More commonly this is usually the one covered in elementary Japanese textbooks)
まだ食べていない is using the ている form, specifically, the one that shows a condition or state.
In other words, the second one is closer to 'I haven't eaten yet'.
I realize that this is not the clearest of explanations - a lot of my knowledge is what I'm absorbed through immersion so a lot of it is more 'feeling' than explicit reasons, so I'll see if I cannot get a grammar expert in here to comment on what you and I have written.
Just like マイコー said, まだ～ていません is by far the more common usage (I don't think I've ever actually heard まだ～ません in 5 years living in Japan...). If you think about the English, we do the same thing - we don't say "I do not eat yet," we say "I *haven't* eaten yet." Since the action is something we may do later, we need to use the て form to show that the possibility still exists.
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