Placement of "ya" in present perfect sentence?

Question

Learning something different, the present perfect and the sentence below uses "ya" but I do not know where it goes.

No me he cepillado los dientes. {ya?} I have not brushed my teeth yet.

My guess is at the beginning since it sounds better but are there any rules for this?

Thank you for asking this question, I also struggle with "ya" vs. "todavía" and where to put these words in the sentence. - Stadt, Apr 25, 2011

Answer 1

No me he cepillado los dientes. {ya?} I have not brushed my teeth yet.

Aún/todavía no me he cepillado los dientes.

No me he cepillado aún/todavía los dientes.

No me he cepillado los dientes aún/todavía.

My guess is at the beginning since it sounds better but are there any rules for this?

Anywhere you like, as long as you don't put it like in English, hehe. You can't do this: "No me he aún cepillado los dientes", putting an adverb between "he" and "cepillado", and you can't put it between the "no" and/or object pronouns before the verb, or breaking any independent phrase. The position depends on what part of the sentence you want to highlight more. Spanish is more flexible with the order of the words than English.

As long as "aún/todavía" is not inserted in any of these blocks (signalled with square brackets), it is fine:

[No me he cepillado] [los dientes].

In longer sentences you have even more options:

(1) [No me he cepillado] (2) [los dientes] (3) [esta mañana] (4)

The above sentence accepts four different positions, although (4) is more unusual.

Thank you, very well explained. - Stadt, Apr 25, 2011

Nice lazarus, as always you seem to know your stuff. - foxluv, Apr 25, 2011

I'm still learning, but I spend lots of hours making sure I get closer to understanding my language a bit. - lazarus1907, Apr 25, 2011

Answer 2

Ya can go at the end or the beginning but it wouldn't be used in your example, instead you would use todavía, i.e. Todavía no me he cepillado los dientes and that says you have not done the action yet although you intend to do it, you would use ya to say that you have done the action, Me he cepillado los dientes ya.

"Todavía no me he cepillado los dientes", "Me he cepillado los dientes ya." - 002067fe, Apr 25, 2011

Darn! I keep getting those 2 words mixed up, it should have been Todavía. - foxluv, Apr 25, 2011

That is what I put 3 minutes before your correction, I quickly realised my slip up without any prompting. - kenwilliams, Apr 25, 2011

Would you ever put the "ya/todavía right after cepillado? - foxluv, Apr 25, 2011

Ya he leido el periodico or he leido el periodico ya, both are correct I think todavía sounds better at the front. - kenwilliams, Apr 25, 2011

Answer 3

(ya) me he cepillado los dientes (ya)

ya - already

yet = todavía

Answer 4

This example shows the placement after the verb which seems out of place?

¿No han salido ya las mujeres?

Haven't the women left yet?