Chinese word

刚才

Pronunciation

Pinyingāng cái

Meaning

  • adverbjust now

Example

刚才你打电话了吗？gāng cái nǐ dǎ diàn huà le ma

Did you call just now?

Illustration for 刚才 (just now)

More examples

我刚才听见门外有声音。wǒ gāng cái tīng jiàn mén wài yǒu shēng yīn

I heard a sound outside the door just now.

Core concept

A tiny slice of past time that still touches the present.

Common phrases

  • 刚才听见gāng cái tīng jiàn

    heard just now

  • 刚才来了gāng cái lái le

    came just now

  • 刚才问你gāng cái wèn nǐ

    asked you just now

Similar words

刚刚gāng gāng: Strongly emphasizes that an action or event happened only moments ago.
刚gāng: Marks an action or situation that happened a short time ago.

Definition in Chinese

表示发生在很短时间以前的动作或情况，指刚过去的一刻或那段短时间，常作时间状语放在句首或动词前。biǎo shì fā shēng zài hěn duǎn shí jiān yǐ qián de dòng zuò huò qíng kuàng zhǐ gāng guò qù de yí kè huò nà duàn duǎn shí jiān cháng zuò shí jiān zhuàng yǔ fàng zài jù shǒu huò dòng cí qián

Word origin

刚 (gāng, "just") + 才 (cái, "then") combine to mark a point shortly before the present.

Usage tips

  • In English, just can mean only as well as a recent time, so this Chinese word is best linked to a time point rather than to a small amount.

Other meanings

  • earlieradverb

Opposites

Word lists with this word