Hola todos, and bienvenidos.
Welcome back to Real Fast Spanish.
In this video, you are gonna learn
about the Spanish words ya
and todavia.
When I work closely with Spanish students,
and I hear a mistake made
with one of these two words,
I'll often ask why did you use
ya or todavia in this sentence,
and I typically get one of two responses.
I know I needed to use ya
or todavia in this sentence
but I wasn't sure which one so I guessed.
I tried to translate directly from English
In this video, you're gonna to learn a new way
to think about ya and todavia
that will allow you to quickly figure out
which of these two words you need
without translating directly from English.
Vamonos.
(upbeat music)
One of the reasons that ya and todavia
are so challenging when translating
from English to Spanish
is that there're a lot of possible translations
for these words.
Ya could be already, now, by now,
yet, still, no longer, any more.
Todavia could be yet, still,
even, already.
Now, notice that both ya and todavia
can be yet, still and already.
Let's have a look at a few examples
to demonstrate this point.
Imagine you want to ask someone in Spanish
have you eaten yet?
Have you eaten yet?
This in Spanish would be (speaks Spanish).
(speaks Spanish)
Now, if the answer to the question was
No, I haven't eaten yet,
then this in Spanish would be (speaks Spanish).
(speaks Spanish)
So here you can see that we've now got
one question that has the word yet in it,
have you eaten yet, that uses ya,
and we've got the answer,
no, I haven't eaten yet,
which has todavia.
Let's look at another example.
Imagine you wanted to ask someone politely
if you haven't already done the dishes,
can you wash this too?
Imagine you've got a dirty plate.
Now, this in Spanish would be (speaks Spanish).
(speaks Spanish)
So in this sentence we've got si todavia,
if you haven't already
washed the dishes.
Now, if the answer was
Sorry, I've already washed the dishes,
this would be (speaks Spanish).
(speaks Spanish)
So again, if you haven't already,
we need todavia.
I have already, we need ya.
Alright, let's look at an example for still.
Imagine you're going to a party
and you want to check whether your friend
Luisa is still at the party.
So the first person you walk up to at the party
you ask is Luisa still here?
This in Spanish would be (speaks Spanish).
(speaks Spanish)
Now, if the answer was
No, she is not still here,
this in Spanish would be (speaks Spanish).
(speaks Spanish)
Now, notice the answer to that question was
No, she is not still here.
Now, I may get some comments below
from the people that know
English grammar really well.
People might be saying, Well Andrew,
that's not technically a great English sentence.
And if you look on the dictionary website
for not still, you'll see that this is
technically not allowed and it should be
she is no longer at the party,
or she's not at the party any more.
But if for you that sentence sounds like it's okay,
No, she is not still here,
then this is just gonna compound this problem
of already, yet and still
being possible translations
for ya and todavia.
So, if searching for a direct translation
doesn't work, what should we do instead?
To answer this question, we need to look
at why we even need these words
in a sentence in the first place.
In English, if you were to ask someone
are you ready versus are you ready yet,
versus are you still not ready?
Now, of course, you can really ask
this question with some emotion.
Are you still not ready?
Now, of course, I'm gonna throw in some tonality
and some emotion to really highlight the point.
But even if I try to completely remove
all emotion from that question,
Are you still not ready?
As you can see, it's very hard
to remove the emotion completely,
because that's what these words are doing.
They're adding expectation
to time-based events.
Wow, you're already ready?
That was quick.
Wow, you've already finished your food?
You're a fast eater.
Wow, you've already solved that puzzle?
Impressive!
Now that we know these words
add expectations to time-based events,
that leads to four possible scenarios.
Expectations around events in the present.
Expectations around events in the past.
Positive expectations.
And negative expectations.
Now, when I say positive and negative,
I'm not necessarily talking about positive
and negative emotions, but talking about
the positive or affirmative answer to a question,
and the negative answer to a question.
So let's have a look at an example.
Imagine you are living in Lima
and I wanted to ask you
are you still living in Lima?
This in Spanish would be (speaks Spanish).
(speaks Spanish)
Now, if the answer to that question
was the positive or the affirmative,
Yes, I'm still living in Lima,
that would be (speaks Spanish).
(speak Spanish)
Now, imagine the negative answer was
No, I'm no longer living in Lima,
or I'm not still living in Lima,
or I'm not living in Lima any more,
all three of those sentences
would translate to one in Spanish
would be (speaks Spanish).
(speaks Spanish)
Now, one thing you may have noticed
from this example that we can rely on
with complete certainty,
is that if the positive answer
to a question has todavia,
then the negative answer will have ya no.
So for example.
(speaks Spanish)
Let's have a look at another example.
Imagine I want to ask you
are you still working for the government?
This in Spanish would be (speaks Spanish).
(speaks Spanish)
Now, if the answer to that question was
Yes, I'm still working for the government,
this would be (speaks Spanish).
(speaks Spanish)
If the answer was No,
it would be (speaks Spanish).
(speaks Spanish)
With these two examples,
living in Lima or working for the government,
going back to our four scenarios,
we've now covered the first two.
And this leads to the positive with todavia
and the negative with ya no.
So, the first thing you have to ask yourself,
are you talking about events in the present,
and if you're talking about the positive,
affirmative case, then you need todavia,
and if you're talking about the negative,
then you need ya no.
Let's have a look at an example for the past.
Imagine I wanted to ask you
have you already been to the market today?
Have you already been to the market today?
This in Spanish would be (speaks Spanish).
(speaks Spanish)
Now, if the answer to that question was
Yes, I have already been to the market,
this in Spanish would be (speaks Spanish).
(speaks Spanish)
Now, if the answer was
No, I haven't been to the market yet,
this in Spanish would be (speaks Spanish).
(speaks Spanish)
Alright, let's look at another example.
Imagine I lost my glasses.
(speaks Spanish)
So now going back to our four scenarios
we have expectations
around events in the past,
and in the positive sentence we have ya,
yes, I have already been to the market,
and we have the negative
No, I still haven't been to the market,
I haven't been to the market yet,
todavia no.
So now, if you know you're talking
about an event in the past,
an event that should have happened,
or that you're expecting to happen by now,
then you need ya in the positive case
and todavia no in the negative case.
The last part of this topic,
which can make this
just a little bit more tricky,
is that you can actually reframe
sentences about past events
to make them sound like or look like
they're happening in the present.
So for example, with the situation
where I lost my glasses,
instead of saying
have you found your glasses yet,
have you found them in the past,
you could just say
do you have your glasses now?
Do you have them now?
And it sounds like this is a present tense situation
but it's actually talking about the search,
is the search over?
So you're still referring to an event in the past.
So instead of saying have you found
your glasses yet, you could say
do you have your glasses now?
This in Spanish would be (speaks Spanish).
(speaks Spanish)
Now, if the answer to that question was
No, I don't have my glasses yet,
No, I don't yet have my glasses,
or No, I still don't have my glasses,
this would be (speaks Spanish).
(speaks Spanish)
Or in the positive case,
Yes, I have my glasses now.
(speaks Spanish)
So, as you can see from this example,
even though we're talking about a situation
using present tense conjugations,
we're still referring to an event in the past.
We're still talking about that search
of actually looking for the glasses
and at the end of the search,
we have them.
We now have them.
So, we're still gonna use ya and todavia no
like it's a past tense
even though we've got a verb
conjugated in the present.
Let's have a look at another example.
Going back to the question from before.
Imagine you are getting ready
and you want to ask the person
you're getting ready with
are you ready yet?
This in Spanish would be (speaks Spanish).
Now, this is if you're talking
to someone who is male.
Now, if you're talking to someone who is female,
it would be (speaks Spanish).
(speaks Spanish)
Now, if the answer to that question was
No, I'm not ready yet,
this would be (speaks Spanish).
(speaks Spanish)
Or Yes, I'm ready now.
(speaks Spanish)
So again, this is talking about the time
it took to get ready.
This is a past event.
You've spent all this time preparing,
getting ready to go out and at the end
of finishing preparing to go out,
then you say Yes, I'm ready now,
or Yes, I've finished preparing to go out.
You want to think about the two situations.
So going back to our four scenarios,
technically we've got present tense,
past tense, positive and negative.
But we've also got past tense actions
which are kind of worded
like they're in the present tense.
Alright, so that ends this lesson
on using ya and todavia
to talk about time-based events in Spanish.
If you have any questions or comments,
then you can leave a comment below.
Why not give us a few examples
of sentences that you can use now
using ya and todavia.
If you like this video,
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Now, of course, to get a little bit of meta,
this would be a really good situation
to now use ya or todavia.
If you are not already subscribed,
so this would be past negative.
So (speaks Spanish).
(speaks Spanish)
Now, if you would like more tips like this,
if you want more tips about learning Spanish,
about how to use the grammar,
then head over to Real Fast Spanish.com,
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So on that note, thank you so much for watching
and I'll speak with you soon.
Hasta pronto.
(upbeat music)