Chinese Grammar Bank || 

How to use 才
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:
Subject + Time + 才 + Verb

How to use 才 || Sentence Examples

Chinese Pinyin English

我昨天才看到你的邮 wǒ zuó tiān cái kàn dào nǐ de yóu

I just saw your email yesterday.
件。 jiàn 

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.

wǒ men shàng zhōu cái gāng bān

我们上周才刚搬完家。 We just finished moving last week.
wán jiā 

她迟到了半个小时，刚 tā chí dào le bàn gè xiǎo shí, gāng

She was half an hour late and had just arrived.
刚才到。 gāng cái dào

她今天才开始复习明早 tā jīn tiān cái kāi shǐ fù xí míng She just started studying for the exam tomorrow
的考试。 zǎo de kǎo shì morning.

大雪下了两天，昨晚才 dà xuě xià le liǎng tiān, zuó wǎn cái It has been snowing heavily for two days, and it
停。 tíng 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.
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
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