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老师们好～！【刚】和【才】有什么不一样哦？

Lesson Suggestion
#1

Suggested Difficulty (Elementary etc): Intermediate ?
Video or Audio: Video Preferred
Lesson Idea: Hi @Constance_Fang and Team,

大家好！老师们好！I have been learning Mandarin myself by watching TV and films as well as listening to music for a long time. I was raised around Mandarin music and entertainment but I didn’t grow up speaking it as I was raised speaking a less common dialect of Chinese. And since I do not have a solid structure of learning the standard Mandarin (that is of course until I found out about ChinesePod yesterday!!), I therefore also learn in an unchronological way as in there are advanced things I am skilled at and some beginner things I am not so skilled at.

So I want to suggest the teachers a lesson. I’m sorry if this already is a lesson and I just didn’t know. I know in one of the videos it was discussed very briefly. 方老师 and 田老师 explained that 刚 means just (completed an action) but it was completed a little longer ago while 刚刚 means just just as in literally just completed as we speak—it was completed more recent. It would be helpful for me if this could be explained a bit more in detail and I also have ran into 才 when communicating with native speakers from China and Taiwan and also when watching TV. I have put it in a translator and it gave me “just” as well. It makes sense to me (if the translation is correct)! Though, I would like a bit of comparison and more background behind the words. I have also seen 刚才 and thought “What is this!?” I’ve seen both characters with different ones to form a whole different word too (e.g. 刚好，才能，etc…) Do they perhaps have something to do with 刚 and 才 too?

I would just like an explanation, comparison, and a guide to show me how to use these words and such. 谢谢老师们，下次见吧！

#2

Hi,
Chinese character"刚，刚刚，刚才，才“ they can be exchaged in the sentence, means an action just finished a little longer ago。 for example: 他刚/才/刚刚走。

but " 刚好” is a little different, means an action finished a little earlier than " 刚刚，刚才" .also indicate "it is so happened ".
for example: 我刚好开完会， 你来的真是时候(I just finished the meeting, you just came over in a right time).
我今年刚好十岁（ I am just ten years old this year).
" 才能“ means be able to do something or someone’s talent or ability.
for example, 你要早点出发，才能不迟到. 他是一个很有才能的人。

#3

Hi there,
In Chinese, one character may has more than one meaning, so when we look into a word, we can’t only understand the word through the meaning that we’ve learnt before. Take 才 for example. 才 has many meanings:

  1. talents, or talented：才能 [cáinéng] talents

  2. surname

  3. a moment ago：刚才

  4. indicating sth happening later than expected：他十二点才睡 [Tā shí’èr diǎn cái shuì] He didn’t sleep until 12.

  5. (preceded by a clause of condition or reason) not until：做完事才能睡 [Zuò wánshì cáinéng shuì] I can’t sleep until I finish my work.

  6. (followed by a numerical clause) only：才一个小时，我就做完了 [Cái yīgè xiǎoshí, wǒ jiù zuò wánle] I finished it in only one hour.

  7. (indicating emphasis)：我才不信呢 [Wǒ cái bùxìn ne] I don’t believe it.

#4

刚刚 and 刚才 are interchangable. People tend to simplify the word by omitting one 刚. So you might usually hear people say 我刚看见他了 which is acutally same as “我刚刚/刚才看见他了”

才 has a different meaning though. for example, when people say “我等了很久才见到他”, it means that he/she had waited for a long time before the person showed up.