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| A graffiti made just to help you with aun! Photo credit: Dr. Garageland licensed Public Domain Mark 1.0 |
Aun
Aun translates into even. That is when the stuff following it is included with the stuff implied. Confused? Allow me to illustrate:
No tengo tanto dinero, ¡ni aun la mitad!
I don’t have that much money, not even half!
In the above example, what’s implied is money and what follows aun is half of that money. So, basically what I’m trying to say is that I don’t have that much money and I don’t have half of it either. The stuff after even, “half of it,” is included in the stuff implied, “that much money.”
Take another example:
Aun hoy, no me gustan las frutas.
Even today, I don’t like fruits.
Again, the sentence implies all times and today is included in that set. So you see, aun just reinforces that figurative set, very much like its English counterpart even.
Aún
That little tick above u changes everything. Now the word no longer means even. Instead, it translates into still. It can also translate into yet wherever that yet can be rendered as still. Consider this example:
Aún no he comprado el libro.
I still haven’t bought the book.
The above sentence can also be rendered as:
I haven’t bought the book yet.
Think of aún in terms of an ongoing or incomplete action that somehow need to be concluded. In the above example, the act of not buying the book is still ongoing and it will conclude once I do finally buy the said book. The sentence also implies that I have to buy the book sooner or later.
Now look at yet another example:
Aún tengo sueño.
I am still sleepy.
Again, I have been sleepy and the act of feeling sleepy continues as I speak. The usage of aún or still also vaguely implies that I don’t much intend to stay sleepy forever.
Aun and aún: The trick
In a nutshell, aun is even and aún is still. One implies inclusion and the other implies continuation. Completely different concepts, no? So how does one remember to tell them apart at all times? That’s where the trick comes in. There are two components of the whole exercise. First you have to remember that both even and still are represented by the word aun, if we disregard the tick for a moment. Once that’s been dealt with, you’ve got to somehow also remember which of the two words takes the tick.
As I’ve discussed several times in earlier articles, a little creativity and word-association ingenuity goes a long way cementing any strange-sounding word into your brain. Call it visualization, word-association, word-bridging, mental hook, mnemonics, or just downright vocabulary wizardry, the trick manages to work every single time.
For the first step, just fancy yourself as an American spy in the Cold-War Russia whose cover just got blown and has now landed in a morbid KGB interrogation chamber. Trained for the situation as you are, you take quite a beating and yet continue to hold your ground. They try the best of torture devices at their disposal and all you keep muttering is, “Even if you killed me and my family, I would still not open my mouth.” Look at you, you stubborn patriot! You even have the guts to call those dementors clowns because of the ridiculous masks they’re wearing. How brave of you. Now, no matter how much they batter you, just stick to your statement. Not just because you love your country, but also because the statement includes both even and still. And your captors look like clowns for a reason too. What does clown rhyme with? Aun! So, remember to tell them, “Even if you kill me and my family, I’ll still not open my mouth, you auns...err...clowns.”
Now telling aun and aún apart shouldn’t be a big deal. Notice the tick above the u in aún? Notice the dot above the i in still? That’s hint enough – aún maps to still. Aun, on the other hand, has no extra dots or accents. Nor does even. That’s how you remember aun means even. Easy, wasn’t it?
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| For all practical purposes, todavía is synonymous to aún Photo credit: Tnarik Innael licensed CC BY-SA 2.0 |
Incluso and todavía
Remember I said aun or even indicate something is being included in an implied category? Since inclusion is the central theme of this word, it’s often also rendered as incluso. So, aun and incluso are more often than not synonymous. Incluso shouldn’t need any special sorcery to memorize since it already sounds like inclusion. You can, to be painfully pedantic, think of incluso as a more emphatic version of aun. But if you’re still at an intermediate stage in your Spanish, I’d recommend seeing the two words as perfectly synonymous for all practical purposes.
Todavía is synonymous to aún. Notice the tick that runs common to both words as a hint. Again, the difference is mainly pedantic and for your purposes, considering them interchangeable would do just fine. In informal conversations though, todavía seems to enjoy a better currency than aún, but only by an ever so small margin. Remembering todavía is easy. Imagine a bee sitting on a toad. Scared the bee might sting if he moved, the toad stays still. And scared the toad might make it dinner if it moved, the bee stays still too. Kind of like a Mexican standoff in the animal kingdom. This toad-bee pair, which almost rhymes with todavía, remains still, which reminds us of what todavía or aún mean, for as long as you care to watch. Of course, this still is not the still todavía translates into but it’s hint enough.
There are other members of this group too – hasta and ya. But that’s for another day. In particular, ya has an entire spectrum of meanings and is quite a fun word to use. Very ubiquitous too. Stay tuned for an article discussing this awesome word in full gory detail.
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