Chinese word

就

Pronunciation

Pinyinjiù

Meaning

  • adverbright away

Example

他一到家就睡觉。tā yí dào jiā jiù shuì jiào

He goes to sleep right away when he gets home.

Illustration for 就 (right away)

More examples

电影就要开始了。diàn yǐng jiù yào kāi shǐ le

The movie is about to start.

Core concept

A marker that draws the next event close, or pins an action to one clear point.

Common phrases

  • 就要jiù yào

    be about to

  • 就可以jiù ké yǐ

    can right away

Similar words

马上mǎ shàng: Means that an action or change happens immediately.
才cái: Shows that something does not happen until later than expected.
刚gāng: Describes something that happened very recently.

Definition in Chinese

表示一件事发生后，另一件事在很短时间内立即发生，常用于连接动作或结果，典型结构为“一…就…”。biǎo shì yí jiàn shì fā shēng hòu lìng yí jiàn shì zài hěn duǎn shí jiān nèi lì jí fā shēng cháng yòng yú lián jiē dòng zuò huò jié guǒ diǎn xíng jié gòu wèi yī jiù

Word origin

就 (jiù, "approach") originally described moving toward or taking up something, and its adverbial use developed to mark the next action as closely connected or fixed.

Usage tips

  • In the common two-part pattern, this adverb normally comes before the verb in the second part, while English often puts a time adverb after the action.

Other meanings

  • thenadverb
  • onlyadverb
  • exactlyadverb
  • alreadyadverb

Opposites

Word lists with this word