刚 / 刚刚 (just)

• Pinyin: gāng
• Formation: Subject + 刚 / 刚刚 + Verb (+ Object) (+ Duration)
• Hanzi breakdown: 刚 = 冈 (ridge) + 刂 (knife)

Meaning

The adverb 刚 or 刚刚 means 'just' and indicates that an action happened very recently. It emphasizes the short amount of time that has passed since the action occurred.

刚 and 刚刚 are largely interchangeable, with 刚刚 being slightly more emphatic. Unlike 刚才 which points to a specific moment in the past, 刚 emphasizes the recency and freshness of the action — it just happened. A distinctive feature of 刚 is that it can be followed by a duration to specify exactly how long ago something happened, as in 刚来三天 (just arrived three days ago). 刚 is placed directly before the verb. Because 刚 already implies the action is recent and completed, it does not typically combine with 了 at the end of the sentence. 刚 is extremely common in spoken Chinese and appears in many set phrases.

Examples

1. 我刚到家，还没换衣服。 I just got home and haven't changed clothes yet.
2. 他刚刚吃完午饭。 He just finished lunch.
3. 她刚来中国两个星期。 She just came to China two weeks ago.

Usage Guide

Context: spoken, everyday

Tone: conversational

Do Say

• 我刚洗完澡，头发还是湿的。
• 他们刚搬到这个小区，对周围还不太熟悉。
• 这家店刚开业不到一个月。

Don't Say

• 我刚吃完饭了。(刚 already implies recency — adding 了 at the end is redundant and unnatural) → 我刚吃完饭。
• 她刚才来中国两个月。(刚才 is a time word for a specific past moment and cannot be followed by a duration — use 刚 instead) → 她刚来中国两个月。
• 我刚明天去北京。(刚 refers to the recent past — it cannot be used with future time words) → 我明天去北京。

Origin & History

刚 originally referred to something hard and strong, as in steel (钢). The temporal sense of 'just now' or 'barely' evolved from the idea of something being at its initial, raw state — freshly occurred.

Cultural Context

Generation: All ages

Social background: Universal