Learn Hardcore Spanish (Latin America): Mis abuelos ya pagaron su hipoteca y ahora viven más tranquilos. - My grandparents have already paid off their mortgage and now live more peacefully.

Mis abuelos ya pagaron su hipoteca. = My grandparents already paid their (one) mortgage.
Mis abuelos ya pagaron sus hipotecas. = My grandparents already paid their mortgages (more than one mortgage).

The fact that abuelos is plural doesn’t change su, only the number of hipoteca / hipotecas does.

What tense is pagaron, and why is it used here?

Pagaron is the preterite (simple past) of pagar for ellos / ellas / ustedes.

Infinitive: pagar (to pay)
Preterite: pagaron (they paid)

The preterite is used for completed actions in the past. Here, the mortgage is fully paid off; it’s a finished action, so the preterite is the natural choice in Latin American Spanish:

Mis abuelos ya pagaron su hipoteca.
= My grandparents (already) paid off their mortgage (and that action is done).

Could I say han pagado instead of pagaron?

You can say Mis abuelos ya han pagado su hipoteca, and people will understand you everywhere.

However, in most of Latin America, speakers prefer the preterite (pagaron) over the present perfect (han pagado) for past completed actions, even if they affect the present.

So:

Mis abuelos ya pagaron su hipoteca.
Sounds more natural in Latin America.
Mis abuelos ya han pagado su hipoteca.
Sounds very natural in Spain; in Latin America it’s correct but often less common in everyday speech in this context.

What does ya add to the meaning? Could we leave it out?

Ya here roughly means already, but it also adds a sense of “finally / by now” or “at last”.

Mis abuelos pagaron su hipoteca.
= My grandparents paid their mortgage. (Neutral, just a fact.)
Mis abuelos ya pagaron su hipoteca.
= My grandparents have already paid / finally paid their mortgage.
(Emphasizes that the payment is completed earlier than expected or as desired.)

You can leave ya out grammatically, but you lose that nuance of completion by now or at last.

Why do we have both ya and ahora? Don’t they both mean “now”?

They do different jobs here:

Ya goes with the past action: it signals that the payment is already completed.
Ahora goes with the present situation: it describes how they live now, after that past action.

So the structure is:

Past completed: ya pagaron su hipoteca (they already paid it off)
Present result: y ahora viven más tranquilos (and now they live more calmly)

Together, they highlight a before/after contrast: first they had the mortgage, now they don’t, and this has changed how they live.

Why is it viven más tranquilos and not están más tranquilos?

Both are possible, but they emphasize different things.

Vivir
- adjective (viven más tranquilos)
  Suggests a general way of life or ongoing lifestyle:
- They live more calmly / with less stress now.
Estar
- adjective (están más tranquilos)
  Focuses more on their current state or condition:
- They are calmer (these days / right now).

In this sentence, viven más tranquilos fits well because paying off a mortgage usually leads to a more relaxed lifestyle in general, not just a temporary mood.

Why is tranquilos masculine plural when there are both grandfathers and grandmothers?

In Spanish, when a group includes at least one male, the masculine plural form is used.

Mis abuelos normally implies grandfather(s) + grandmother(s) together, so:
- Masculine plural: tranquilos.

If the group were only women, you’d likely say:

Mis abuelas ya pagaron su hipoteca y ahora viven más tranquilas.
(grandmothers only → feminine plural tranquilas)

What’s the difference between tranquilos and más tranquilos?

Tranquilos = calm, relaxed.
Más tranquilos = more calm, calmer, more relaxed.

So más makes it a comparative:

Implies a comparison with how they were before:
- Before: less calm (because of the mortgage).
- Now: more calm (because it’s paid off).

In English we’d often translate this as “calmer” or “more at ease”.

Is tranquilos an adjective or an adverb here? Could I just say viven más tranquilo?

Tranquilos is an adjective agreeing with mis abuelos (they are calm people).

Subject: mis abuelos (they)
Verb: viven (live)
Complement: más tranquilos (more calm)

You cannot drop the plural agreement and say viven más tranquilo for this meaning. That would be ungrammatical here.

If you wanted an adverb, you would need tranquilamente:

Ahora viven más tranquilamente.
= Now they live more calmly. (Adverb modifying viven)

But the original sentence describes them as being calmer people, not just how they live, so the adjective tranquilos is perfect.

What exactly does hipoteca mean? Is it always about a house?

Hipoteca is a feminine noun that means mortgage:

Typically a loan secured by a property, usually a house or apartment.
Gender: la hipoteca, una hipoteca.

In everyday use, hipoteca almost always implies a home mortgage, just like in English when people casually say “the mortgage.”

Why is it mis abuelos without an article, and not something like los mis abuelos?

With possessive adjectives (mi, mis, tu, su, nuestro, etc.), Spanish normally does not use a definite article:

Mis abuelos = my grandparents
Tus amigos = your friends
Su casa = his/her/your/their house

Los mis abuelos is wrong in standard modern Spanish.

So mis already carries the possessive meaning; you don’t add el/la/los/las in front of it.

Could I change the word order, like Mis abuelos ya pagaron su hipoteca y viven ahora más tranquilos?

Yes, that version is still correct and understandable:

Mis abuelos ya pagaron su hipoteca y viven ahora más tranquilos.

However, some positions are more natural:

Ahora viven más tranquilos is the most common-sounding order.
Viven ahora más tranquilos is okay, but ahora tends to appear at the beginning or end of the clause more often:
- Ahora viven más tranquilos.
- Viven más tranquilos ahora. (also fine)

Your original sentence has very natural, neutral word order for Latin American Spanish.

How do you pronounce hipoteca and tranquilos?

Key points (Latin American pronunciation):

hipoteca: ee-poh-TEH-kah
- h is silent.
- Stress on the te: hi-po-TE-ca.
tranquilos: trahn-KEE-los
- The qui = kee (the u is silent in qui/que).
- Stress on qui: tran-QUI-los.