How to use 刚、刚刚
Subj. + 刚 + Verb
刚 and 刚刚 can present an event as having happened recently. They normally occur after the subject and before the action phrase. The speaker measures recency against the situation: some events count as recent after minutes, while others remain recent over a much longer period in the conversation.
A duration after the verb can specify how little time has passed since an event or the beginning of a state. That construction evaluates the interval as short; it is not limited to the immediately preceding few moments. Distinguish 刚 from 刚才, a time expression referring to a recent past period. Their meanings overlap, but their sentence positions and uses are not identical.
Examples with pinyin and English
我们刚知道。
We just found out.
她们刚走。
They just left.
老板刚刚到办公室。
The boss just arrived at the office.
我老婆刚生完孩子。
My wife just finished giving birth to our baby.
What to remember
- Put 刚 before the action phrase.
- 刚刚 can serve the same basic function.
- Recency depends on the event's timescale.
Practise the pattern
Practise this topic with the app’s grammar exercises. Your answers and review dates are saved separately from vocabulary practice.
Practise this grammar topic ↗Look up the grammar words
Source and editorial notes
Explanation rewritten for Laowai. Examples are adapted from the Laowai English grammar curriculum, with editorial corrections where needed. The original curriculum credits AllSet Learning’s Chinese Grammar Wiki as used with permission. Read the retained source credits.
Difficulty labels describe the level of the explanation; they are not official HSK placement. Send a correction with this page’s URL.