Mexican Spanish to Kirundi: todavía no leaves an expected event uncompleted
Not yet is different from never and no longer
Todavía no llega says that an expected arrival has not occurred by the relevant time. It does not mean that the person never arrives or has stopped arriving. The Mexican dictionary defines the temporal use of todavía as extending up to the present or another specified point. Kirundi has a dedicated construction useful for preserving that unfinished expectation.
Elizabeth E. Cox’s Kirundi course describes a not-yet form built with negative and subject marking plus a long, high-toned rā before the present stem. Its Sindāgenda means that the speaker has not gone yet. The course contrasts this with an ordinary negative form, showing why the temporal qualification cannot simply be ignored.
An unfinished departure does not predict a cancelled trip
Compare Todavía no salgo with Ya no voy a salir. The first leaves the departure uncompleted at the time of speaking; the second can cancel an earlier intention to leave. A Kirundi translation that turns the first into cancellation could tell a waiting friend to abandon a meeting that is still planned.
The opposite misunderstanding is possible in Ya no trabajo allí. This says that employment at that place has ceased, not that the speaker has yet to begin a new job there. Spanish ya no and todavía no describe different relationships between an earlier state and the present, despite both containing the same negative word.
A reported delay can also have a past reference point: A las ocho todavía no llegaba. The speaker describes the situation at eight, not necessarily the situation now. Cox’s basic not-yet example illustrates the present-oriented construction; a longer past narrative needs wording that retains its own reference time instead of automatically copying that example.
Todavía can strengthen a comparison instead of marking an unfinished event
El segundo intento salió todavía mejor uses another dictionary sense, an increase in degree. There is no absent event waiting to occur. Translating todavía with a not-yet verb form here would replace a positive comparison with an incomplete action. The adjective or adverb following the word helps identify that different meaning.
The Mexican expression Y todavía te quejas can add a reproach equivalent to complaining despite the preceding circumstances. It does not necessarily mean that the person has not complained yet. Cox’s special negative temporal construction should therefore be reserved for the relevant meaning, not attached to every sentence containing todavía.
In a practical update, Todavía no termino, pero ya empecé separates beginning from completion. The speaker has started while the endpoint remains unachieved. The Kirundi rendering should allow both facts to coexist, rather than turn the whole task into something unstarted. That distinction gives the recipient useful information about progress without inventing a promised completion time or assuming that the outstanding work has been cancelled.
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