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Monthly Mandarin Grammar Highlight-April, 2023

The difference between “就(jiù)” and “才(cái)”

· Mandarin Study
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This time’s Grammar is the difference between "就(jiù)" and "才(cái)"."就(jiù)" and "才(cái)" have many uses, and today we talk about different meanings when matching the words in the table of time.

1.

time+就(jiù):early time, short time

time+才(cái):late time, long time

Example:

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​yuánbǎo lái zhōngguó yígèyuè jiù huì shuō hànyǔ le。

元宝 来 中国 一个月 就 会 说 汉语 了。

Yuanbao comes to China to speak Chinese only in one month.

Audio

yuánbǎo lái zhōngguó yìnián cái huì shuō hànyǔ。

元宝 来 中国 一年 才 会 说 汉语。

YuanBao comes to China to speak Chinese for one year.

Audio

wǒ zuótiān kāi le èrshí duō fēnzhōng jiù dàojiā le。

我 昨天 开 了 二十 多 分钟 就 到家 了。

It took me only 20 minutes yesterday.

Audio

wǒ zuótiān kāi le yígè xiǎoshí cái dàojiā。

我 昨天 开 了 一个 小时 才 到家。

It took me an hour to get home today.

Audio

2.

就(jiù)+time:late time, long time

才(cái)+time: early time, short time

Example:

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zuówǎn jiābān,huídàojiā jiù shíyīdiǎn le。

昨晚 加班,回到家 就 十一点 了。

I worked overtime last night and got home at 11pm.

Audio

jīntiān méiyǒu dǔchē,huídàojiā cái liùdiǎn。

今天 没有 堵车,回到家 才 六点。

There was no traffic jam today. It was only 6pm when I got home.

Audio

In short, the position of the time word will affect the meaning of the sentence, you can say more, practice more. Experience the usage difference between 就(jiù) and 才(cái).

Well, that's the end of the month. I hope it will help you. See you again for the next month.

 

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