Breakdown of Todavía no he vaciado las cajas de cartón.
de
from / of
no
no, not
la caja
box
haber
(auxiliary) have
todavía
still / yet
vaciar
to empty
el cartón
the cardboard
Questions & Answers about Todavía no he vaciado las cajas de cartón.
Why is todavía no at the beginning of the sentence instead of at the end like "yet" in English?
In Spanish, it is very common to put todavía no (not yet) right before the verb phrase it modifies, which in this case is he vaciado. You can also put it at the end of the sentence like in English (no he vaciado las cajas de cartón todavía), but putting it at the beginning is often the most natural way to say it.
Why isn't the word no placed between he and vaciado?
In Spanish, the two parts of the present perfect (he and vaciado) act as a single inseparable unit. You can never separate the helping verb (he) and the past participle (vaciado) with an adverb, a pronoun, or a negative word like no.
What is the base verb for vaciado, and how is this form made?
The base verb is vaciar, which means "to empty." Because this sentence uses the present perfect ("I have emptied"), we need the past participle. For -ar verbs like vaciar, you drop the -ar and add -ado, which gives us vaciado.
Why does the sentence use de cartón instead of a single adjective for "cardboard"?
In English, we can use nouns like "cardboard" directly in front of other nouns ("cardboard boxes"). In Spanish, you cannot do this. When describing what something is made of, you use de (of) followed by the material noun. So "cardboard boxes" literally translates to cajas de cartón (boxes of cardboard).
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