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Chinese Grammar: Expressing "just now" with 刚才

汉字姐姐
Pinyin
English

In order to say that something "just now" occurred, use the time noun 刚才 (gāngcái). It can be placed in front of the verb or the subject of a statement.
This grammar structure is pretty straightforward. Similar to the English "just now," you can put 刚才 (gāngcái) right before the verb in a sentence. It can also come before or after the subject.
 
Structure: 刚才 + Verb
 
Examples:
你刚才说什么了?(nǐ gāngcái shuō shénme le) = What did you just say?
刚才谁来了?(gāngcái shéi lái le) = Who came just now?
刚才你去哪儿了?(gāngcái nǐ qù nǎr le) = Where did you go just now?
刚才我去洗手间了。(gāngcái wǒ qù xǐshǒujiān le) = I just went to the restroom.
老板刚才生气了。(lǎobǎn gāngcái shēngqì le) = The boss just got angry.
你们刚才在看 什么?(nǐmen gāngcái zài kàn shénme) = What were you looking at just now?
不好意思,我刚才出去了。(bù hǎoyìsi, wǒ gāngcái chūqù le) = I'm sorry, I just now stepped out.
宝宝刚才哭了。(bǎobao gāngcái kū le) = The baby just cried.
他们刚才去开会了。(tāmen gāngcái qù kāihuì le) = They just went to a meeting.
刚才有人找你。(gāngcái yǒu rén zhǎo nǐ) = Just now, there was someone looking for you.
 
Note that for all of those cases, we're talking about something that happened just now, within the past 5 minutes or so. If you're talking about something that "just happened" yesterday or last week, don't use 刚才 (gāngcái), use 刚 (gāng).

Credit: mandarinmorning

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