ya llegamos / estamos aquí

[spanishandy]

Hola a todos,
I was watching a show and after a long trip a girl runs into her grandmothers house and yells "ya llegamos!". To me just based off the context i would have translated it as "we are here" or "we made it" or "we are finally here". However, doesnt "estamos aquí" mean we are here? Are the two phrases interchangeable or do they mean slightly different things? Gracias.

 

[Sendro Páez]

Just guessing, but this seems to be a confusion between 'llegamos' (1st person, plural, presente de indicativo) and 'llegamos' (1st person, plural, pretérito perfecto simple de indicativo). It wouldn't be the first time it happens.

So, "ya llegamos" may mean either "we are about to get there," or "we are finally here." If you want to express just "we are here," you can go with "estamos aquí."

 

[Amapolas]

In my variety of Spanish, 'ya estamos aquí' would be OK but 'ya llegamos' is definitely the standard phrase. Literally, we've [already] arrived.

 

[fenixpollo]

I agree with Sendro:
ya llegamos = we arrived (preterite)
ya llegamos = we arrive (present)

In the context, the past tense is the one being used. And as Amapolas says, "ya llegamos" is a set phrase that is used much, much more commonly than "ya estamos aquí."

 

[Sendro Páez]

Around here, the centre of Spain, the girl would have probably said '¡Ya hemos llegado!' ─ the aforementioned 'We've already arrived!'. It's just we are fonder of using the pretérito perfecto compuesto in these occasions than of using the simple. Anyway, '¡Ya estamos aquí!' wouldn't have sounded by any means strange.