When and how should you use ya vs todavía?
These two Spanish words often get introduced together because they both relate to time. Specifically, they add emotion when discussing deadlines.
In this article (and podcast) you will discover some useful distinctions that will help you to better understand these two common Spanish adverbs.
To introduce the main topic, first consider two simple example questions in English:
Have you done your homework?
Have you done your homework already?
Take a look at these two questions and really think about how the word ‘already’ modifies the meaning of the second question.
Moreover, if you can grasp the role ‘already’ is playing in the second question, then you will be able to understand how ya and todavía modify Spanish sentences.
When comparing the examples above, you could infer from the second question that the homework should have been done (already) or that there is an element of surprise that the homework has (already) been done. Maybe the person asking the question is not happy about the situation. Or alternatively, they might be surprised, it depends on their tone.
In Spanish the possible translations of ya and todavía are as follows:
English: Already, before, by now and now.
Español: Ya.
English: Still, yet.
Español: Todavía.
So which translation is appropriate and when?
You need to consider two decisions:
- Whether the idea you want to express is about something that has happened in the past or continues in the present.
- Whether the idea is negative or positive.
For these two considerations, you now have four possible Spanish sentence structures for ya and todavía:
| Positivo | Negativo | |
|---|---|---|
| Ya | Ya + pasado | Ya + no + presente |
| Todavía | Todavía + presente | Todavía + no + pasado/presente |
Each of these quadrants represents a form of use for ya vs todavía.
The past forms (ya + pasado, todavía + no + pasado) often gets used with the present perfect tense, for details on using the present perfect check out 8 phrases that trigger the present perfect tense.
To help you understand these ideas, here are a bunch of examples. For an explanation of each, check out the podcast episode associated with this post—you can listen in the iTunes store or click the play button here:
Podcast: Play in new window
Examples from the episode:
Have you done your homework already? – ¿Ya has hecho los deberes?
Yes have I have done my homework – Sí, ya he hecho los deberes.
No I haven’t yet done my homework – No, todavía no he hecho los deberes. (no, todavía no)
Have you already seen x-men? – ¿Ya has visto x-men?
Yes I have already seen x-men – Sí ya he visto x-men.
No I still haven’t seen x-men – No, todavía no he visto x-men.
I haven’t eaten – No he comido.
I haven’t eaten yet – Todavía no he comido.
To do the shopping – Ir de compras.
Have you done the shopping already? – ¿Ya has ido de compras?
Yes I have already done the shopping – Sí, he ido de compras.
No I haven’t yet done the shopping – No, todavía no he ido de compras. No, todavía no.
Are you happy? – ¿Estas contento?
I’m still not happy – Todavía no estoy contento.
Do you still live with your parents? – ¿Todavía vives con tus padres?
Yes I still live with my parents – Sí todavía vivo con mis padres.
No I don’t live with my parents anymore, I live with my girlfriend – No ya no vivo con mis padres, vivo con mi novia.
I’m not hungry, yet I could eat something – No tengo hambre, pero puedo comer algo.
I want it right now – Ya lo quiero.
I leave right now – Ya me voy.
Now I understand – Ya entiendo.
Yes I know – Ya lo sé.
Yeah we’ll see – Ya veremos.
Since – Ya que.
Let me know – Ya me dices.
Get out of here! – ¡Anda ya!
That’s it! – ¡Ya está!
Quote from the episode:
“Ya que la casa se quema, calentémonos en ella” – Spanish Proverb
How else could you use ya vs todavía?
Hi Andrew,
Thanks for working so hard at helping us make distinctions in regard to these words.
I have a slightly different way of interpreting ‘already’ in the question “Have you done your homework already?”
To me that question implies 1. that the homework HAS been done, and 2. the “already” suggests surprise that the homework has been completed so quickly.
I would be more likely to use “yet” (not “already”) if there was some sort of obligation. eg, “You want to go out? Have you done your homework yet?”
What do you think?
Cheers, Tony
It’s a great question Tony! And I think you’re right, “yet” is slightly more natural for this question in English. But, I used “already” deliberately because it does still work in English and it translates better to Spanish. “Yet” translates to “still” in some contexts.
I definitely think the tone of voice can change the meaning here as well.
In english, these sentences are almost completely interchangeable:
“Have you done your homework already?”
“Have you done your homework yet?”
You could change the question to talk about a train leaving the station:
“Has the train come and left already?”
“Has the train come and left yet?”
The possible answers would be:
“Yes, the train has already come and left”
“No, the train hasn’t yet come and left”
“No, the train still hasn’t come and left”
Here you can see that in the answer “already” goes with the positive “has” and “yet” or “still” goes with the negative “hasn’t”. These translate to “ya” in Spanish for the positive case and “todavía” for the negative case.
If you choose the words you use in English carefully, it makes the translation to Spanish easier to understand. (This is almost a universal rule and I hope it helps).
So would it be accurate to say that you would use “ya” to mean “yet” in questions, while “todavía” would mean “still” in a question?
For instance, if I’m hungry and I’m asking “Is it lunchtime yet?”
I should say “¿Ya es la hora del almuerzo?”
because if I said “¿Es la hora del almuerzo todavía?” it would mean “Is it still lunchtime?” and that’s not really what I want to say.
Perfect!! You are spot on with the use of “ya” and “todavía” in these examples.
The only comment I would have here is the use of “almuerzo”. In Spain the main meal in the middle of the day is called “la comida”, and they would after say “la hora de comer” for lunchtime. So a more natural version of the first question is “¿Ya es la hora de comer?”
I’ll be visiting Spain in October, so that’s good to know, thanks!
I’ve had the distinction between ya and todavía explained to me several times. ¡Ya lo sé!
Thanks Michele. I’m glad you found it useful!
Beautifully explained. We were looking at the difference between “no esta planchado…” versus “todavia no esta planchado…” and can you say “ya no esta planchado…”. And my head was hurting until I found your explanation. Muchas gracias 🙂
Thanks a lot for all of the examples (I needed them all!). I saw the following sentences online. Is it ok to respond: Todavia no termino? Or does it need to be: Todavia no lo he terminado? And, is the “lo” necessary?
María, ¿ya terminaste tu tarea? / María, have you finished your homework?
No mamá, todavía no termino / No mom, I haven’t finished yet.
Hola Amy, great question! The grammar textbook would say “todavía no he terminado” or “todavía no terminé” in the past tense but it is possible to hear Spanish natives using the present tense conjugation in this situation as well.
Hi Andrew,
I’m only part-way through watching your very helpful and informative video, but had to stop to tell you that when the graphic appears with four possible scenarios there’s a typo in the word ‘Positive’. It appears as ‘Postive’! Easy to do! (I proofread, so I’m cursed with noticing things like that!)
Right, now back to continue watching!
Hola Deran, thanks for letting me know! With typos on the blog, it takes 2 minutes to fix. With typos on Youtube, it’s impossible to fix!! So, I do appreciate the feedback about typos, but if they are on Youtube, there is nothing I can do 🙁
It seems to me there’s a difference in connotation between “yet” and “still” in English that maybe gets lost with “todavia”. For example:
I still can’t speak Spanish – Implies that maybe I tried to learn Spanish, was unsuccessful, and might not be able to in the future
vs
I can’t speak Spanish yet – Implies that I will be able to do so in the future
but both of these sentences would be “Todavia no hablo espanol” – right?
Hola Paul, I generally recommend that students avoid trying to translate “ya” and “todavía” from Spanish to English because they can both mean “already”, “yet” and “still” depending on the context. Check out our Youtube video for a further explanation.
Loved the video. However, what if one wants to deal with the past as in:
“Did you already know the answer?” or “Did you still have a question after the lecture?”
or deal with the future:
“Will you still not be through with your term paper by Monday?” or “Will you have already finished by Monday?”
Hola Andrew, yes, we can extend what I was talking about in the video to these scenarios.
The most common use of ‘ya’ that we’ve heard in colloquial Spanish is the answer to a question about whether a certain person (like, the boss) is available: ‘¿Enrique está?’ ‘Ya viene.’. This answer, of course, may not actually be true, but the respondent wants to be positive and avoid saying ‘Todavía no,’ which is the truth.
Haha, thanks for sharing Rob!! 😅
There is another word that can mean “still” or “yet”–the word “igual” as in: “Si no les gustó su regalo, deben agradecerle igual.” (If you didn’t like her present, you should still thank her.” Where does “igual” fit in with what you said. It doesn’t seem it can always be replaced by “todavía” or “aún?” Perhaps you could comment or add this in.
Thanks for the suggestion Andrew, yes, this could make for another interesting article!! 🙂
Hola Andrew,
¿Son estas dos oraciones correctamente usando “ya no”?
Porque uno es en el presente y otra es en tiempo pretérito imperfecto?
1) Ya no estamos en los años setenta. We are no longer in the seventies.
2) Ya no eran los años setenta. It wasn’t the ’70s anymore.
Is “ya no” correct because in both cases the 70’s no longer exists in the presence?