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"Still" = something that continues; "anymore" = something that no longer happens.
Side-by-side comparison
Up to now, yet, continuing. Indicates something that started before is still in progress.
Are you still waiting for an answer? It has been three weeks.
She still loves him, even after everything.
I still do not understand why he left.
No longer. Indicates something that used to happen has stopped. Always in negative sentences.
I do not eat meat anymore. I stopped two years ago.
She does not live here anymore, she moved to Berlin.
We do not talk anymore after what happened.
Common mistake
Using "still" when you mean "no longer": "I still don't eat meat" = I have not yet started eating meat (implying I might). "I don't eat meat anymore" = I stopped eating meat. They are opposites. Also, "anymore" always appears in negative sentences: "I eat meat anymore" does not exist in standard English.
Trick to remember it
- •Visual trick: "still" = the timeline keeps going and the action continues ("She still works there").
- •"Anymore" = the line cuts off, the action stopped ("She doesn't work there anymore").
- •Always negative: not + anymore.
Quick rule
- •Still + positive = still continuing.
- •Not + anymore = no longer happening.
- •They are opposite structures.
Did you know?
In some American English dialects, especially in the South and the Midwest of the United States, ANYMORE sometimes appears in POSITIVE sentences with the meaning of "nowadays" or "these days": "Anymore, everyone has a smartphone." This usage is non-standard and can cause significant confusion for speakers unfamiliar with it. In formal English and in international English, ANYMORE always appears in negative sentences. This dialectal phenomenon has a technical name: "positive anymore," and it is one of the few cases where regional American usage diverges so clearly from the global standard.
Practise what you learned
Exercise 1 · Pick the right one
She doesn't live in Madrid _____. She moved to Barcelona last year.
Exercise 2 · Pick the right one
He _____ works at the same company. He's been there for fifteen years.
Exercise 3 · Form the word
Related word pairs
"Already" expresses something happened sooner than expected; "yet" questions or denies whether something happened.
"Since" marks the specific point when something started; "for" indicates how long something has lasted.
'Yet' (negative/question) and 'already' (affirmative) express whether something has happened; 'still' expresses continuation.
'A' is used before consonant sounds; 'an' is used before vowel sounds.
Bryan López
Founder of SpeakUP Academy