Practice: láew, jà and yang
What you will be able to do
Place แล้ว, จะ, กำลัง, อยู่, เคย, ยัง, เพิ่ง, ได้ and มา where each belongs, answer a …หรือยัง question with the only two answers it takes, and leave the marker off altogether once a time word has already fixed the time.
Thai verbs never change shape, so time is carried by markers — and, once a time word has settled it, by no marker at all. แล้ว is not a past tense: it reports that a state has flipped, which is exactly why it can point forward in จะไปแล้ว. จะ sets something ahead of you, กำลัง and อยู่ hold the action open at the moment of speaking, เคย is life experience and nothing else, ยัง says the situation has not moved, มา runs a stretch up to now, and ได้ means it happened in front of the verb but able to behind it.
Which one?
Telling a colleague you went to the market yesterday. A plain report, nothing more.
Once a past time word has fixed the time, Thai stops marking: เมื่อวาน (mêua-waan) does the whole job and the sentence is complete, natural and unambiguously past with nothing in it marking past. The second is not broken Thai, but แล้ว reports a flip of state, so it now claims I already went yesterday — an answer to a question nobody asked, and the habit that makes learners sound odd for a year. The third puts จะ, which sets things ahead of the speaker, against a day that has gone; it survives only as I was going to go, and then only with a clause saying what stopped you, and it never reports that you went. The fourth says the opposite of what happened: that you have not been.
What is he telling you?
จะไปแล้ว
This is the proof that แล้ว (láew) is not a past tense. จะ puts the going ahead of him and แล้ว reports that the situation has now flipped to leaving, so it comes out as I'm off now — and the leaving has not happened. Already gone would carry no จะ at all. A habit takes no marker in Thai. And been and come back is the job of มา (maa) sitting behind the verb, as in ไปตลาดมา.
You have. Which answer?
กินข้าวหรือยังครับ
A …หรือยัง (rěu yang) question has two answers and only two: แล้ว for done, ยัง for not done, each fine on its own or with the verb in front. ยังครับ is the other correct answer to this shape, but it says you have not eaten, which is not true here. ใช่ครับ judges a statement, and this question put no statement in front of you. เคยกินครับ says you have eaten at some point in your life, because เคย only ever does experience. Do not answer with a bare ครับ either, which leaves the other person no wiser.
Which question do you ask?
You want to know whether your neighbour has eaten yet. You are not offering him food.
…หรือยัง asks whether something has happened yet, while …ไหม (mǎi) asks whether it is so in general — which turns the very same three words into an offer of food. So กินข้าวไหมครับ invites him to eat rather than checking on him, and it is answered with เอาครับ or ไม่เอาครับ, never with แล้ว. เคยกินข้าวไหมครับ asks whether he has ever eaten in his life. The last one is not a question at all: it is the answer he would give if he had not eaten.
What is he telling you?
เมื่อก่อนเคยสูบบุหรี่
เคย (khoei) does two jobs. With no time frame it is have ever; put a past time frame in front of it — and เมื่อก่อน (mêua-gàwn), back in the day, is exactly that — and it becomes used to. Never is the negative ไม่เคย (mâi khoei), and there is no ไม่ in the sentence. Still smoking is the other machine, ยัง plus the verb closed with อยู่. Just had one is เพิ่ง (phôeng), a moment ago, which sits before the verb like เคย but points at the last few minutes rather than at a life.
What is actually being asked?
เคยกินไหมครับ
เคย only ever asks about experience, whether a thing has happened at any point in a life, so this asks whether you have ever eaten anything — which is why it gets you a strange look at midday. Have you eaten yet is a different machine altogether, กินข้าวหรือยัง (gin khâao rěu yang). Right now is กำลัง … อยู่. And an offer is …ไหม on a plain verb, กินข้าวไหมครับ. Experience and recency are separate questions in Thai, and mapping เคย onto the English present perfect is the slip this lesson exists to stop.
What do you send?
You are late, stuck in traffic, and nearly at the restaurant where they are waiting for you.
กำลังจะ (gam-lang jà) is on the verge of, and แล้ว closes it with the flip you are announcing, which is why this is the standard message from the back of a taxi. ถึงแล้วครับ says you have arrived, and you have not. เพิ่งถึงครับ makes the same false claim with a different marker, that you got there a moment ago. ยังไม่ได้ออกไปเลยครับ says you have not even left yet, which is worse news than the truth and will get you a phone call.
Which one?
Your phone rings while you are at your desk in the middle of a job.
กำลัง in front and อยู่ behind wrap the verb on both sides, and that wrap is the everyday way to say something is happening at this second — emphasis, not redundancy. จะทำงานครับ puts the work ahead of you, and note that English uses -ing for the future all the time while Thai never does, so tomorrow takes จะ and never กำลัง. เคยทำงานครับ reports experience, that you have worked at some point in your life. ยังไม่ได้ทำงานเลยครับ says you have not started at all.
Which answer keeps it open?
The immigration officer asks whether you have extended your visa. You have not, but you fully intend to.
ยังไม่ได้ (yang mâi dâi) plus the verb is have not done it yet, and the ยัง is the syllable that leaves the job open and still on your list. Drop it and ไม่ได้ in front of the verb says flatly that the event did not happen: closed, no plan, which is precisely what you do not want an officer to hear. ต่อไม่ได้ครับ moves ได้ behind the verb, where it means able to, so that one says you cannot extend it at all. ไม่ต่อแล้วครับ is the ไม่ … แล้ว pattern, not any more, announcing that you have given up on it.
Which sentence?
You have been invited to a wedding and you would like to go, but you will be away that weekend.
ได้ behind the verb means able to, so ผมไปไม่ได้ is I can't go, which is the sentence for a weekend already spoken for. ผมไม่ได้ไป has the same two syllables in front of the verb, where they say the event did not happen: I didn't go. ผมยังไม่ได้ไป keeps it open, I haven't been yet, which is not true of an invitation you are turning down. ผมไปแล้ว says you already went. Same word, opposite side of the verb, completely different sentence, and swapping them is the classic slip.
What is he telling his friend?
ยังไม่หิว
ยังไม่ (yang mâi) is not yet: the situation has not moved and the hunger has not arrived. Its exact mirror is ไม่ … แล้ว, so not hungry any more is ไม่หิวแล้ว — the same flip of state that every แล้ว reports, only flipped to the negative side. Still hungry is the other face of ยัง, ยัง plus the verb closed with อยู่. And a past reading would want a time word rather than a marker; nothing here points backwards at all.
What has he said?
ได้อยู่แล้วครับ
อยู่แล้ว (yùu láew) as a pair has been taken over by a meaning of its own, of course, naturally, so this is a warm sure, no problem and says nothing about time. That is exactly why you must not build still doing it by adding แล้ว to อยู่ — leave the ongoing sentence at …อยู่, as in ยังทำอยู่ครับ. Already finished would be เสร็จแล้ว, a flip of state. And not able to would put ไม่ได้ behind the verb, which nothing here does: this ได้ standing alone is the yes.
What is being asked?
เป็นมานานหรือยัง
This is what a nurse asks about a symptom, and the machinery is มา (maa) sitting behind the verb to run the situation up to the present, closed off by the …หรือยัง question. It is the same มา you need for your own answer, อยู่เมืองไทยมา … แล้ว. Ever had it would be เคย, experience rather than duration. Gone now would be หายแล้วครับ, a flip of state. Still hurting is ยัง … อยู่, as in ยังปวดอยู่ไหมครับ, which is the follow-up visit rather than this one.
How much of this has happened?
เดี๋ยวอาบน้ำแล้วจะออกไป
There are two แล้ว, and this is the linker rather than the marker. The marker sits behind the verb phrase and reports a flip of state; the linker starts a clause and means and then, usually heard in speech as แล้วก็ (láew gâw). You can tell which you have because this one stands in front of a verb, and จะ on that verb puts the going out ahead of the speaker — so nothing has happened and the whole sentence is a plan. Reading it as the marker is the trap, and it would leave you thinking the shower was finished. Both finished would need แล้ว at the end with nothing after it, and under way at this moment would need กำลัง. เดี๋ยว (dǐao) fixes the whole thing in the near future, so the แล้ว in front of จะ cannot be the marker reporting a finished shower.
Common mistake
แล้ว bolted onto every sentence about yesterday. เมื่อวานผมไปตลาด is 'I went to the market yesterday'; add แล้ว and you have claimed you already went, which answers a question nobody asked. And keep ไม่ได้ไป, I didn't go, apart from ยังไม่ได้ไป, I haven't been yet — one syllable, and at an immigration desk it is the whole difference.
Next: Past, future and already