In short – ‘aún’ and ‘todavía’ are the Spanish equivalents of ‘yet’ and ‘still’. ‘Aún’ generally translates to ‘yet’ in NEGATIVE sentences in the present perfect and to ‘still’ in affirmative sentences in other tenses. ‘Todavía’ can almost always translate to ‘still’.
If you’re learning Spanish then you’ve probably wondered what the difference between ‘aún’ and ‘todavía’ is, and – as they say in Mexico – te haces bolas (you get them mixed up).
But fear not: this article will show you how they’re nothing more than non-identical twins with ever so slightly different tastes, and by the end you should be able to use them with ease!
Let’s get into it.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
We use aún and todavía most often with present perfect sentences (¿qué?).
These are the “Have you been to …” / “I haven’t seen …” kind of sentences that we use to describe life experiences and recent past events.
Here are a few examples –
No he visto la película aún.
I haven’t seen the film yet.
Todavía no he visto la película.
I still haven’t seen the film.
No he ido a visitar a mamá aún.
I haven’t gone to see Mum yet.
Todavía no he ido a visitar a mamá.
I still haven’t gone to see Mum.
Espera – ¿Todavía no has hecho la tarea?
Wait – you still haven’t done your homework?
Espera – ¿No has hecho la tarea aún?
Wait – you haven’t done your homework yet?
¿Ya te cayó el veinte? Did the penny drop? Yep, I heard the metallic crunch too!
In NEGATIVE sentences in the present perfect, ‘aún’ translates as ‘yet’ and ‘todavía’ as ‘still’.
Oh, and they BOTH translate to ‘still’ in affirmative AND negative sentences / questions in other tenses (present, preterite, etc.) –
Todavía no tenemos el dinero suficiente.
We still don’t have enough money.
Aún no tenemos el dinero suficiente.
We still don’t have enough money.
Todavía había mucha gente bailando cuando nos fuimos.
There were still loads of people dancing when we left.
Aún había mucha gente bailando cuando nos fuimos.
There were still loads of people dancing when we left.
When to use ‘aún’
Let’s think of aún as our good friend ‘yet’ from English.
If you didn’t know (I mean, let’s be honest, you probably haven’t given it a good mulling over), ‘yet’ MUST come at the end of the sentence.
Remember our examples?
I haven’t seen the film yet.
Wait – you haven’t done the homework yet?
You see?
If you tried to move those “yets” to the beginning of the sentence, it would just sound, well … wrong.
Aún works quite similarly, and you’ll often see it at the end of the sentence in Spanish (as per our examples!).
No he visto la película aún.
¿No has hecho la tarea aún?
Now, don’t get too excited (or angry) just yet!
You may have seen aún at the beginning (or middle) of a sentence too.
It’s true, I confess. Spanish, like its ancestor Latin, is more flexible with word positions in a sentence than English.
We can think of this “aún rule” not as a rule per se, but as a pattern.
So, you CAN also say –
Aún no he visto la película.
I haven’t seen the film yet.
¿Aún no has hecho la tarea?
You haven’t done your homework yet?
And one with ‘aún’ in the middle just for good measure!
¿Puedes creer que aún no he visto la película?
Can you believe that I haven’t seen the film yet?
You may (or may not!) have noticed that all the above examples are NEGATIVE (i.e., they all contain ‘no’ or ‘not’).
Well, ‘aún’ translates to the English ‘yet’ in NEGATIVE sentences in the PRESENT PERFECT.
And what about affirmative sentences? Yep, I can in fact hear you screaming into that phone/tablet of yours!
And, yeah, ‘aún’ can indeed be used in affirmative sentences AND questions, but this time it translates to our ol’ friend ‘still’!
Here you’ll also be using other tenses like the present and past.
Let’s look at some examples –
¿Aún sigues allá?
Are you still there?
Había mucha comida aún.
There was still a lot of food.
‘Aun’ vs ‘aún‘
A last little point: don’t forget that accent on the ‘u’ (i.e., ‘ú’).
Why? because ‘aun’ without the accent means ‘including’ or ‘even’.
Here are some examples –
Necesitas adaptarte a otra cultura en México aun con las dificultades del* idioma.
You need to adapt to another culture in Mexico even/including with the language problems.
Aun hoy me acuerdo de la primera vez que tuve problemas con aun y aún.
Even today I remember the first time I had problems with aun and aún.
*Erika’s note – ‘del’ is just a fusion of the article ‘el’ with ‘de’. Check out our article on ‘de’ vs ‘del’ if you wanna know more!
When to use ‘todavía’
Todavía is like ‘still’ and generally comes at the beginning of sentences (yep, again like ‘still’!).
I refer you (if I may) to our examples from earlier –
I still haven’t gone to see Mum.
Have you still not left?
Not at the very beginning of the sentence, agreed, but try to move those “stills” to the end of the sentences and you’ll see it just doesn’t work.
So, in Spanish these sentences translate to –
Todavía no he ido a visitar a mamá.
¿Todavía no te has ido?
Now, as with aún, todavía is pretty flexible with its position in the sentence; it can go at the end if you want it to go there, but it just doesn’t seem to want to be there very much.
Entonces, you can say –
No he ido a visitar a mamá todavía.
¿No te has ido todavía?
And, well, the above sentences aren’t incorrect, but they’re perhaps not quite as common.
And guess what? ‘Todavía’ also translates to ‘still’ in affirmative sentences and questions in other tenses too (phew!).
Todavía necesitamos pasar por un cajero.
We still need to stop by an ATM.
¿Todavía necesitamos pasar por un cajero?
Do we still need to stop by an ATM?
A very Mexican ‘todavía’
Once, when sweating buckets in a restaurant in Zihuatanejo in August, I asked the waiter if they served mojitos (I needed the ice, not the alcohol, I swear). He shook his head with a twinge of embarrassment and said: “todavía no.”
“Ah, bueno”, I thought … “not yet” he says, I’ll come back in a few days and have a nice icey mojito. I went back a few days later and got the same answer (the horror). But you said, “not yet” I reminded him. I thought you might have the mojitos by now. He shrugged his shoulders.
I asked around: it turned out that saying “todavía no” is the polite way of saying “no” because “no” would just be too definitive, too negative. Oh well, maybe I’ll go back in a few years and see if they’re serving mojitos by then.
Final thoughts
You see? It’s pretty easy.
Think of todavía and aún as two different sweaters. They look different; they feel different, but they do the same job of keeping you warm in winter. Use them without fear, play around with them … trust me you can’t go wrong!
Oh, and if you wanna wrap your head around some more grammar, definitely check out our article on ‘lo que’ and ‘que’.
Time for a tequila? ¿O todavía no?
