Discussion of 刚才/剛才 [gāng cái] just now

Discussion of 刚才/剛才

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A few important points we need to keep in mind when we use 刚才:

1. 刚才 refers to a short time before the time of speaking, as opposed to 现在 (right now, the present moment).
Example 1a.刚才你男朋友给你打电话了。 [phr] Your boyfriend called you just now.
* Attention: if we generally express a very subjective meaning of "not very long ago", we cannot use 刚才. We have to use 刚. Because 刚才 only refers to "not long ago before the time of speaking".

2. 刚才 can appear before or after the subject of a sentence as the adverbial of time.
Example 2a. 我刚才正在写信呢。 [phr] I was writing a letter just now.
Example 2b. 刚才我说的事情都是真的。 [phr] What I have said just now is all true

3. 刚才 can also be the subject of the sentence.
Example 3. 刚才比现在热多了。Just now it was much hotter than right now.

For more information, you may check out our notes on 刚 and 刚刚, two other words with similar (but not entirely the same) meaning.

4. 刚才 can also be the attributive modifier.
Example 4. 我把刚才的事忘了。 [phr] I forgot about what happened just now.

lisaC

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