Learn Spanish (Latin America): ¿Ya han vaciado el camión?

In Spanish, ya often goes before the verb, especially in questions like this. You can also put it at the end (¿Han vaciado el camión ya?), but starting the sentence with ya is very natural and common.

Could I say ¿Han ya vaciado el camión?

No. In Spanish, the helper verb (han) and the past participle (vaciado) are a strict team that cannot be separated by other words. The word ya must go before han or at the very end of the sentence.

How do we form the verb han vaciado?

This is the present perfect tense. It combines han (the 'they' or 'you all' form of the helper verb haber) with vaciado, which is the past participle of vaciar (to empty).

Is vaciado related to the adjective for 'empty'?

Yes! The adjective for 'empty' is vacío (or vacía). To make the action verb 'to empty', Spanish uses vaciar. In this sentence, we drop the -ar and add -ado to make the past participle vaciado (emptied).