Thai ได้: position, negation and event time

Position changes the job of ได้

Read the whole verb phrase, including the time words.

Before a verb, ได้ can present an event as realized or an opportunity obtained. After the verb phrase, it can express ability or permission. Neither position supplies a calendar date by itself. จะได้ can look ahead to an opportunity or result.

Compare เมื่อวานไม่ได้คุย with วันนี้คุยไม่ได้. In the first, the event did not happen yesterday. In the second, talking is not possible today. The surrounding situation can explain why; the marker alone does not tell us whether the obstacle is ability, permission or circumstances.

Locate the time first, then find what the negative expression denies. Do not mechanically move ไม่ without checking the intended meaning.

The examples illustrate contextual readings, not a tense-conjugation table.

Already underway is not already finished

An activity can already be happening without being finished.

กำลัง…อยู่ presents an activity in progress. Adding แล้ว can mark that the situation now holds; it need not mean the activity is complete. A past time setting can locate that ongoing activity in a story.

In a story, ตอนที่… supplies the reference moment. กำลัง…อยู่ describes the activity at that moment. To state completion explicitly, use a suitable result such as จบ or เสร็จ; do not infer completion just from แล้ว.

Ask two separate questions: Has the activity begun? Has it finished? The answers need not be the same.

A sentence without a stated date may depend on a shared situation.

Already can refer to a beginning

แล้ว can show that a situation now holds, not just that an action is finished. In กำลังอ่านอยู่แล้ว, the reading is already underway. In อ่านจบแล้ว, it is finished. Read the whole phrase to tell the difference.