Estonian to Galician: alles can mean recently, still or only after a delay
A recent event and a continuing state have different timelines
EKI’s explanatory dictionary separates several uses of alles. In Tulin alles töölt, the word helps indicate a recent return from work. Elsewhere it marks something still continuing or something happening no earlier than a specified moment. A Galician translation should not assign one fixed temporal equivalent to all these uses.
The Real Academia Galega defines aínda for an action or state continuing at the relevant time, illustrating Aínda está a durmir. That construction concerns ongoing sleep, not a completed arrival that happened just recently. If an original Estonian message says a task is still underway, preserve continuation; if it says somebody has only just returned, preserve the recent event instead.
The distinction can matter in a simple availability message. A person who has just returned may now be available, whereas someone still travelling may not be. Choosing a continuation expression for the recent-return meaning changes the practical inference, even if both target clauses retain the same travel verb.
Later than expected is not the same as soon
EKI illustrates the delayed-time use with Alles nüüd ma märkan. Its contribution is that the noticing occurs only now, potentially later than expected. It should not become a statement that noticing will happen soon. The source event’s position relative to expectation is part of the message.
Galician logo has a dictionary sense involving little delay and another involving a later point in a sequence. The Academy illustrates the sequential use through doing one thing first and another afterwards. Those meanings cannot be selected simply because an Estonian sentence contains a short time adverb.
For an original Estonian response announcing that something will happen only tomorrow, a target promising it promptly could encourage the recipient to wait today. Conversely, an account that one task follows another need not assert either promptness or an unwelcome delay. Establish whether the source marks sequence, recency or a later-than-expected boundary before choosing the Galician expression.
Only a quantity is a further distinction
The Estonian dictionary also records alles with the sense of a limited amount, such as having covered only part of a route. Here the message restricts progress rather than locating the event immediately before the present. A translation emphasising recent travel could lose how much remains to be done.
The Galician dictionary distinguishes adverbial só, expressing only or no more than, from adjectival só or soa, expressing being without company. A target phrase about limited progress must therefore not accidentally describe a traveller being alone. The same spelling can contribute different grammatical meanings.
An original Estonian report of completing only a small part of a journey does not say that the traveller had no companion. Similarly, a source about an activity still continuing does not necessarily restrict the number of people doing it. Continuation, quantity and solitude are separate propositions.
These dictionary distinctions give this pair a practical reading strategy: determine what alles limits or relates to time, then assess the complete Galician construction. Keeping the temporal boundary, ongoing state or restricted amount is more informative than replacing the source adverb with whichever short target word appears first in a bilingual list.
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