Practice: not yet, just, and almost
What you will be able to do
Answer กินข้าวหรือยัง without reaching for ไม่, and place ยัง, เพิ่ง, เกือบ, แล้ว, กำลังจะ, ไว้, เคย and เดี๋ยว so a listener knows exactly where in time you are.
Thai marks time with a small closed set of texture words, not with tense. ยัง says the picture has not changed yet, เพิ่ง says it only just did, เกือบ hovers just short of the point it precedes, แล้ว says the state has changed and holds as of now, and กำลังจะ puts an event on the verge. A question ending in หรือยัง has exactly two honest answers: แล้ว or ยัง.
You have not eaten and lunch is still ahead of you. Which reply?
กินข้าวหรือยัง
หรือยัง (rěu yang) asks "or not yet", and it has exactly two honest answers. ยัง (yang) is one of them, and standing alone it is already a complete sentence meaning not yet. ไม่กิน is the trap English sets: it denies the action itself and reads as turning the meal down. แล้ว (láew) is the other honest answer, but it is the wrong one here — it says you have already eaten. And เคย (khoei) belongs to a เคยไหม question about whether you have ever done something in your life, which is not what was asked.
Which sentence do you need?
The hotel has you down for a room you never reserved, and you need to tell the desk plainly that the booking is not yours.
ไม่ได้ + verb denies that the thing took place, which is exactly the claim to make at a desk: I did not book it. ยังไม่ได้จอง adds ยัง and reopens the door — it says you have not booked yet but still mean to, which invites them to book you in now. ผมจองไว้แล้ว claims the opposite, that a booking exists and is being held for you. And bare ไม่ + verb denies the action rather than the event, so ผมไม่จอง reads as a refusal, I am not booking, which will simply confuse them.
How long has the speaker been in Thailand?
เพิ่งมาเมืองไทยปีที่แล้ว
เพิ่ง (phôeng) does not fix a size of window; it flags that the elapsed time is short for the situation. The time word here is ปีที่แล้ว, last year, so that is the answer, and เพิ่ง is saying only that a year is not long to have been here. A few days would need its own time word — the lesson's short-window example is เพิ่งมาถึงเมื่อกี้. Many years is the reading เพิ่ง exists to rule out. And the arrival has happened: มา is not negated by anything in the sentence.
What happened to the key?
เกือบลืมกุญแจห้อง
เกือบ (gèuap) always describes a near miss: the thing did not happen. The forgetting was avoided at the last moment, so the key came along. It was not left behind — that would be the mishap เกือบ says was dodged. Nothing here says it was ever lost; เกือบ reports how close the mishap came, not a sequence of losing and finding. And the sentence places the key nowhere at all: it is about the speaker's memory, in the same family as เกือบตกรถ and รถเกือบชน.
Which word does that job?
You want to say that most of the shops around here are shut.
ส่วนใหญ่ (sùan yài) is the word for most of something. เกือบ is the one learners reach for here and it never means that: it hovers just short of whatever point it precedes, as in เกือบถึงแล้ว and เกือบเสร็จแล้ว, which is about nearness in time or degree, not proportion. ยัง says the picture has not changed yet, and เพิ่ง says something only just happened. Neither of those counts anything either.
When does the bus leave?
รถกำลังจะออกแล้ว
กำลังจะ (gam-lang jà) puts the departure on the verge, and แล้ว (láew) stamps it as of now, so the two together mean it is upon you — run. This sentence is the proof that แล้ว is not a past tense: it happily marks a future event arriving, so "it left a moment ago" gets the word exactly backwards. Later today, with no urgency attached, would be plain จะ. And a departure sitting on the verge is by definition a scheduled one.
Which sentence says the rain is just about to start?
The sky has gone dark and your laundry is out. Nothing has fallen yet.
กำลังจะ + verb sits between จะ (sometime, however far off) and กำลัง + verb + อยู่ (in progress right now), which is precisely the on-the-verge slot this situation needs. ฝนกำลังตกอยู่ says it is raining already, and ฝนตกแล้ว says the same thing a different way, that the change has happened as of now — both are false while nothing has fallen. ฝนยังไม่ตก is true so far as it goes, but ยัง only reports that the picture has not changed; it says nothing about what is coming, so it will not get the laundry in.
A vendor is pressing you to buy. What does this do?
ไว้ก่อนนะครับ
ไว้ก่อน (wái gàwn) parks something for now and leaves it for later, and standing alone it is the kindest way to say no to a persistent vendor — softer and more Thai than mâi ao. It commits you to nothing, so it is neither an acceptance postponed nor a price settled. Asking him to hold an item would need a verb in front of ไว้ to say what to do with it, as in เก็บไว้; the whole force of ไว้ก่อน on its own is that no verb, and no purchase, is coming.
Which sentence fits?
You booked a room a week ago and you are now standing at the desk.
verb + ไว้ (wái) says you acted and the result is being held for its moment, which is exactly what a booking is, and แล้ว stamps it as done as of now. ยังไม่ได้จองไว้ says you have not booked ahead yet. จะจองห้อง puts the booking in the future, which is a week too late. And ไม่ได้จอง denies that any booking took place — the right sentence when the desk has you down for the wrong room, and the wrong one when they have you down correctly.
Which reply?
A friend asks whether you have been to Chiang Rai. You have not, and you would like him to talk you into going.
ยังไม่เคย (yang mâi khoei) is "I haven't yet ever", and the ยัง leaves the door open, which is what invites the reply "you should go". ไม่เคยเลย does the opposite: เลย (loei) strengthens the never into never once, and it closes the topic. เคยอยู่ภูเก็ต uses the second sense of เคย, used to, and answers about somewhere you lived instead of the place he asked about.
Which reading is possible for it?
เคยอยู่ภูเก็ต
เคย (khoei) carries a state that belongs to before now, and with a verb like อยู่ that gives its second sense, used to. Living there at the moment would be อยู่ภูเก็ต with no เคย at all, since เคย is what pushes it back before now. About to move belongs to กำลังจะ, the on-the-verge word. And never been is the negative, ไม่เคย, which is a different word from the one in front of you.
What is the มา doing?
อยู่เมืองไทยมาสามปีแล้ว
verb + มา (maa) + duration means the activity has run from back then up to this moment, and it is the machine behind อยู่เมืองไทยมากี่ปีแล้ว, the question every taxi driver asks. It is not the verb come — อยู่ is the verb here, and มา is doing grammar, not movement. Nothing is finished either: แล้ว says the state holds as of now, which is the opposite of over. And it does not turn anything into a question — อยู่เมืองไทยมากี่ปีแล้ว asks because of กี่ปี, and มา is doing exactly the same job there as it is here.
The shop clerk says this as she walks off with your card. What has she told you?
เดี๋ยวมา
เดี๋ยว (dǐao) covers the next few minutes, and เดี๋ยวมา on its own is a promise of immediacy: back in a moment. She is walking away as she says it, so she is not arriving. A completed return would need แล้ว, the word that says the state has changed as of now. And another day, unscheduled, is what ไว้ does — ไว้ค่อยคุย, we will talk later — which is a very different promise from เดี๋ยว.
Which one asks that?
It is late and you want to know whether the shop is still open.
ยัง before a plain verb means still, and it likes to close with อยู่ (yùu) when the state is ongoing, so ยังเปิดอยู่ไหม asks whether the open state is still running — the late-evening question. ร้านเปิดหรือยัง asks the other end of the day, whether it has opened yet, which is what you ask in the morning. ร้านยังไม่เปิด is not a question at all: it is the statement that the shop has not opened yet, ยัง before ไม่ giving not yet rather than still. And ร้านเปิดมากี่ปีแล้ว is the verb + มา + duration machine from the taxi driver's question, asking how many years the shop has been in business rather than whether it is open tonight.
Common mistake
Answering a หรือยัง question with ไม่. ไม่กิน declines the meal instead of postponing it. The same trap one step further on: bare ไม่ + verb denies the action, while ไม่ได้ + verb denies that it ever took place.