Chinese Grammar Bank
HOW TO USE 才
We’ll explain everything you need to know about how to use 才 with structures and sentence examples.
You’ll soon realise than the 才 structure is actually the exact opposite of the 就 structure than express earliness.
HOW TO USE 才 | BASIC STRUCTURE
才 (cái) is a prevalent word in Chinese speech, so it’s a good idea to figure out when to use it!
才 means “just” but in the sense that something happened later than you expected.
In English, 才 (cái) might be expressed with “as late as” or “not until.”
We often use the 才 (cái) pattern with a time of some sort, like a specific time of day, age, etc.
Moreover, this pattern is essentially the opposite of using 就 (jiù) to express earliness.
就 means something happened earlier than expected. Remember to distinguish these two words so you won’t mix them up.
We often use 才 before the verb to indicate the lateness in sentences:
PATTERN
Subject + Time + 才 + Verb
HOW TO USE 才 | EXAMPLES
她今天才开始复习明早的考试。
She just started studying for the exam tomorrow morning.View More Phrases
| CHINESE | PINYIN | ENGLISH |
|---|---|---|
| 我昨天才看到你的邮件。 | wǒ zuó tiān cái kàn dào nǐ de yóu jiàn | I just saw your email yesterday. |
| 我十点钟才起床。 | wǒ shí diǎn zhōng cái qǐ chuáng | I didn’t get up until ten o’clock. |
| 她晚上十一点才下班。 | tā wǎn shàng shí yī diǎn cái xià bān | She didn’t get off work until eleven o’clock at night. |
| 我们上周才刚搬完家。 | wǒ men shàng zhōu cái gāng bān wán jiā | We just finished moving last week. |
| 她迟到了半个小时，刚刚才到。 | tā chí dào le bàn gè xiǎo shí, gāng gāng cái dào | She was half an hour late and had just arrived. |
| 大雪下了两天，昨晚才停。 | dà xuě xià le liǎng tiān, zuó wǎn cái tíng | It has been snowing heavily for two days, and it stopped last night. |
We can tell that 才 means “just now” or “a moment ago” in all these examples, but there’s a sense of “only just now” as well.
It feels as if the events were expected to happen sooner but didn’t.
We can also omit time when it’s not necessary:
| CHINESE | PINYIN | ENGLISH |
|---|---|---|
| 你怎么才吃晚饭？ | nǐ zěn me cái chī wǎn fàn | How did you just have dinner? |
| 为什么你才到？ | wèi shén me nǐ cái dào | Why did you just arrive? |
| 我才收到你的信息。 | wǒ cái shōu dào nǐ de xìn xī | I just got your message. |
| 我才明白她的意思。 | wǒ cái míng bái tā de yì sī | I just understood what she meant. |
IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT 才
A frequent mistake that learners often make is to put 了 after the 才 structure to indicate that the action was completed. However, this contradicts our expression habits.
- ❌
- 她去年才结婚了。
- tā qù nián cái jié hūn le
- ✅
- 她去年才结婚。
- tā qù nián cái jié hūn
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FAQs
What is 才?
才 (cái) is a prevalent word in Chinese speech.
才 means “just” but in the sense that something happened later than you expected.
How to use 才?
We often use 才 before the verb to indicate the lateness in sentences.
Here is the proper sentence structure:
Subject + Time + 才 + Verb
Some examples with 才?
我昨天才看到你的邮件。| I just saw your email yesterday.
我十点钟才起床。| I didn’t get up until ten o’clock.
我们上周才刚搬完家。| We just finished moving last week.
What’s the difference between 才 and 就?
In English, 才 (cái) might be expressed with “as late as” or “not until.”
We often use the 才 (cái) pattern with a time of some sort, like a specific time of day, age, etc.
Moreover, this pattern is essentially the opposite of using 就 (jiù) to express earliness.
就 means something happened earlier than expected. Remember to distinguish these two words so you won’t mix them up.
Where to find some A2 grammar lessons?
Have a look into our Chinese Grammar Bank, we have plenty of A2 grammar lessons you can study for free.
We even have more beginner lessons in the A1 category, if you ever need to brush up on some earlier lessons.
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