Gang Cai 刚才- Daily Mandarin Lesson

The Mandarin Chinese phrase for “just a moment ago” is ►gāng cái. It consists of two characters: 剛才. The first character, 剛 (gāng), means “just” or “barely.” The second character, 才 (cái), means “not until.”
Examples of Gang Cai
 
    ► Nǐ gāng cái zuò shénme?
    你剛才做甚麼?
    你刚才做什么?
    What did she just do?

    ► Tā gāng cái shuō tā bù zhī dào.
    他剛才說他不知道｡
    他刚才说他不知道｡
    He just said he didn’t know.