Comparing "cai" and "jiu"

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Both 才 and 就 are adverbs that have to do with expressing time, and they are both placed in front of the verb. However, they both have a different tone and feel, and they express different lengths of time.


才 expresses that the speaker thinks that the the time that passed since the action takes place was a long time. Sometimes it expresses anxiety, impatience, anger etc.


Structure

才 + Verb

Examples

  • 我 等 了 两 个 小时 买 到 票。
  • 他 迟到 了 半 个 小时 来。

就 expresses that the speaker thinks that the time since the action happened is short, and it has a surprise, unexpectedness, or even sometimes regret.


Structure

就 + Verb

Examples

  • 你们 这么 早 下班 了?
  • 他 两 年 以前 去世 了。

就 is used to express earliness

就 indicates that something has occurred earlier than expected

Structure

Subject + Time + 就 + Verb + Object

Examples

  • 他 下午 四点 吃 晚饭。

Example dialog

  • A: 你 怎么 来?
  • B: 我 八点 出门 了,路 上 堵车 我 也 没 办法。

See also

Sources and further reading

Books